Mankind's record with mangling animal DNA for our benefit is, as we've shown before, spotty at best. Usually, these goofy creations serve little purpose, other than embarrassing the poor animals and reminding them that we're at the top of the food chain and can screw with them just because we can.
This is no more evident than the many times we've humiliated birds. After seeing the myriad ways we've used science to fuck with our fine feathered friends, we're frankly shocked they haven't all turned into Hitchcockian horrors, seeking violent revenge on the pitiful humans who made them look this way. If you think we're exaggerating, take a gander at ...
Via Budgiesareawesome
Oh, come on, really? That can't be a bird. It looks like something a toddler hastily glued together after accidentally exploding a bird.
Amazingly, there actually is a living thing inside that mess of feathers, and its state is not the result of multiple little girls with untethered access to a curling iron, a blow dryer, and several packs of extensions. It's a budgie, and the reason it looks like a failed loofah design is because of a debilitating defect called feather duster syndrome. How does one get FDS? Inbreeding. Lots and lots of inbreeding.
Wild budgies, despite originating from Australia, are not gigantic hulking beasts bent on destroying everybody. No, they actually look pretty normal:
The Listening Earth
Wait, are they plotting our demise anyway? Oh, fuck you, Australia.
They're quite adorable, and have proven to be incredibly popular as household pets. However, wild budgies haven't been exported from Australia since 1894. They have to come from somewhere, though, so breeders have been encouraging incest ever since. Two-hundred-plus years of the ultimate family reunion? What could possibly go wrong?
Via Robinson Budgie Stud
AAAAHHHH!