Craig, the Cigarette-Smoking Crow, Has Disappeared

If you give a crow a cigarette, he’s going to ask for another cigarette. When you give him another cigarette, he’ll probably ask you for another cigarette. When he’s finished, he'll ask you for another cigarette.

Then he will disappear.

No, this is not a beloved children’s story. For one man in Bexhill, East Sussex, it’s reality. According to British tabloid the Sun, a dad named Pete was gardening one day when a crow approached him, looking for a friend. “It first landed on my back as I was digging in the garden and kept getting under the shovel,” he said. “From then on, it constantly followed me around, never leaving me alone.” Pete decided to name his new friend Craig.

“One day I rolled a cigarette and it nicked it. I offered it a light and it appeared to nod its head,” Pete said. “After that, if I stepped out the back to smoke it would swoop down to join me and try to get the cigarette.” And we must stop him there. First of all, it’s rude to refer to an animal as “it,” particularly a very smart one you have befriended and named Craig. Second of all, according to the VCA network of animal hospitals, it is dangerous to even smoke around a bird:

“Birds have a very efficient respiratory system and are sensitive to pollutants in the air. Birds are also extremely susceptible to any source of smoke. Cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and vaporizers should not be used around your bird.”

The dangers of giving your bird his own lit cigarette are not even mentioned. Please do not give a bird a cigarette. We can promise you the bird is not nodding because he wants one and, even if he were, that does not obligate you to acquiesce to his demand. You have power over the birds. You must insist that the ones you’ve taken under your “wing,” so to speak, do not smoke cigarettes. It’s the right thing to do. Not convinced it would be unwise? Look at what happened to Craig.

Pete and his three children, who used to feed Craig, have not seen him since last October. “We don’t know what happened, but maybe it was the cigarettes which did it,” Pete said. The unbearable loss and potential murder, by Pete, of Craig has led the Bexhill resident to his darkest moment yet.

He is creating NFTs.

“Pete has turned the more than 6,000 pictures he took of the crow into a collection of NFT artwork,” writes the Sun, “and even made him his own Twitter account called @IamCryptoCraig.”

Do not let Craig’s passing have been in vain. Resist the temptation to give birds lit cigarettes. Resist the temptation to create a collection of NTFs. Resist the temptation to buy an NFT; any NFT, and in particular an NFT sold by Pete, about a bird who was likely killed by Pete.

We can make a better world for the Craigs of the future. We just have to try. And we have to not give crows cigarettes.