Mike Tyson's Ex-Girlfriend Ate His Pet Pigeon

Barring imminent starvation, it is basically never OK to eat a romantic partner's pets. That seems like the sort of relationship advice that wouldn't have to take up space in any dating guides, but one of Mike Tyson's former girlfriends didn't get the memo and thought it was a good idea to eat one of his pigeons.

According to The Huffington Post, the former boxer has a flock of much-adored pet pigeons that he raises and trains for races. But in an interview Thursday, he told CBS that although he is a vegan now, he had once tried and failed to eat a pigeon, because one of his girlfriends had killed and prepared one of his and told him to try it.

"I tried," Tyson said. "I was dating this young lady and she said, 'I don't know why you're flying those damn birds, you should be eating them.' ... She happened to grab one and — and she cooked one and proceeded to eat it. And I just couldn't do it."

Tyson said "it wasn't cool" for his ex-girlfriend to kill and eat one of his pets, but that "it was her house and we were living off of her dime, so she could do (it)." Pet-eating is generally a deal-breaker, though, and Tyson cites it as one of the reasons he's no longer with the woman in question.

Pigeons that don't belong to one's romantic partner are edible, however, and the meat is often described as tender, moist, and rich compared with chicken, though there is relatively little meat per bird. For fancy, culinary purposes, young pigeons are called squab.

According to Tyson, his former girlfriend prepared the pigeon in "some boiling stuff." For some more detailed instructions on different ways to prepare one, check out some of our best squab recipes.