Owl Fixation

First came owl cafes; now, owl bars. Why can鈥檛 we leave these predators alone?

After coveting , Londoners a live owl bar of their very own. And they鈥檙e getting one鈥攏ext month a pop-up bar called will allow visitors to mingle with raptors over cocktails in London鈥檚 Soho neighborhood.

Twenty pounds, around $31, will get you two drinks (such as a vodka-gin Hoot or an Owl-presso Martini) and two hours of what the proprietors call a 鈥渦nique owl indulgence.鈥 Only 10-12 visitors will be allowed at a time during the pop-up鈥檚 week-long run, and the idea is already so popular that tickets are being sold by lottery: More than 60,000 people have entered to win a spot.  

As we鈥檝e previously reported, this is a bad idea. These birds aren鈥檛 suited for this purpose, Kent Knowles of the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia reminded 探花精选 earlier this month. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not pets,鈥 . 鈥淭hey never will be pets.鈥

Even the charity slated to receive a bulk of the profits, the Barn Owl Centre, has pulled out, the concept is 鈥減urely abusive to owls.鈥 There鈥檚 a against it, too.

Owls are among the most vicious predators out there, or as Knowles puts it, 鈥渢hey're the most bloody independent, uncooperative critters on the face of the earth.鈥 So why do we imagine these wild creatures to be good coffee companions?

Dr. Mark Hauber, professor of psychology at Hunter College, attributes our owlish fixation their adorable, nearly humanoid faces: 鈥淯nlike most birds, owls have a facial disk whereby the eyes and the beak (nose) are in the same plane, instead of facing to the sides (like chickens). Thus they remind us of ourselves, and we empathize with them,鈥 Hauber says. 鈥淗aving large, human-sized eyes helps too!"

But just because owls exude human-ness doesn鈥檛 mean we should invite them to the bar鈥攇et your owl fix by browsing these beautiful shots instead.