Do you ever feel like animals are spying on you? Is that bird in the window listening to your conversations? Does the cat snoop through your e-mail while you’re at work? Perhaps, in your calmer moments, you chalk it all up to paranoia and move on with your day, but I’ve got news for you: That squirrel may be wearing a wire.

Don’t believe me? Well, you need look no further than Iran. According to the Associated Foreign Press, authorities “arrested” two suspected spy pigeons near a uranium enrichment facility in October of 2008. And no, that’s not intelligence slang — they arrested actual birds, each with suspicious “metal rings and invisible strings.” What’s more, this was hardly an isolated incident. In 2007, Iranian authorities reportedly captured 14 squirrels armed with state-of-the-art espionage equipment along their borders.