Shiluach Haken, Part One: Save the Pigeons?

What is the rationale behind the mitzvah of shiluach haken, sending away the mother bird?

The Rambam, in "Guide for the Perplexed", explains that we are enjoined to send away the mother bird as an act of compassion, to spare her the anguish of seeing her children taken away for the slaughter.

This approach strikes me as very strange.  Is sending away the mother bird really an act of compassion?  Does the bird really experience less anguish when she is sent away than when her children are taken before her eyes?  Clearly, she is trying to protect her children -- why does it matter whether you send her away or whether you take the children?

The Ramban, in his commentary on the Torah, gives a different explanation.  He says that by sending away the mother bird, we are saving the species, even as we are consuming the individuals.

So according to the Ramban, “send away the mother bird” should be understood as “spare the mother bird”.  When you find a bird’s nest inhabited by a mother and children, don’t eat all the birds; eat the children, and leave the mother alone.

I like the Ramban’s approach, but I don’t think it should be understood as the expression of a “caretaker” environmentalism, which would enjoin us to protect endangered species for the sake of biodiversity.  I think that the reason we are supposed to protect “species” (really, populations) of kosher birds is so that we will be able to go on eating the individuals.  We are supposed to send away the mother bird so that she can make more baby birds for us to eat.  It’s sustainable hunting, essentially.

Similarly, the original mitzva of "bal tashchit" prohibits cutting down trees under some circumstances, but the prohibition explicitly applies only to trees with human-edible fruit. The Torah is not concerned with botanical diversity, but with sustainable consumption of natural resources. (Thanks to my father for pointing this out!)

The sabbatical year may also be related in part to sustainable farming. The sabbatical year demonstrates the Divine ownership of the land, but it also allows the land to "rest".

Don't get me wrong, though. I don’t mean to say that the Torah is indifferent to the suffering of animals.  The Torah clearly cares about animal suffering.  That consideration has its own dedicated mitzva, “tzaar baalei chayim”, the prohibition of causing needless suffering to animals.  But shiluach haken is not about compassion.  It’s about the tragedy of the commons.

For a more thorough treatment of the intellectual history of shiluach haken, please see the wonderful paper by Rabbi Natan Slifkin, available here: http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2010/08/shiluach-hakein-transformation-of.html