The House of Dr Deelittle

It was a long time before anyone noticed, due to the lockdown. Dr Deelittle had cast a spell over the neighbourhood, intending to allow people to understand the speech of birds. Unfortunately, a little known conservation law of magic meant that people that can understand other creatures, can no longer understand other people.

However, luckily for Dr Deelittle, the same law meant that at least now, birds could understand people.

So now, for human society to continue to function, everyone had to have a pet bird to act as their mouthpiece. This is why the Regents Park Zoo Aviary was suddenly empty.

While much conversation is really just gossip, which birds were very able to convey, more subtle communication was not feasible, unless you were lucky enough to secure a tame crow.

But then, Dr Deelittle was employed by the General Communications Head Quarters to  extend the spell to include smarter creatures, dogs, cats, and sheep - yes, it transpired that sheep are incredibly intelligent,  the unsuspecting public were to learn. In rural areas, farmers of course had already established that cows and pigs were not far off that level too.

In the end, the spell spread throughout the whole earth eco-system. And of course, the unintended consequence of this, certainly far from Dr Deelittle’s gourmand mind, was that everyone was now obliged to become a vegan.