I FEEL I must take issue with Mr Terry Luscombe, the pigeon expert, ('Falcons are putting pigeon racing on brink', says fancier, January 22).

As I see it, the problem is with the transporting of a bird with a defined territory and home, miles away, even overseas, and subjecting it to a long and hazardous flight to reach its home and safety. To me, this is an act of cruelty. In my view, to use its natural homing instinct in such a way is not sport but a distorted human pleasure.

I totally understand the need for this in wartime, when pigeons were an important means of communication. The PDSA Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, was awarded to 32 pigeons in World War Two. The incidents cited included the recovery of ditched aircrew. Amazing isn't it? My first encounter with 'pigeon fanciers' was many years ago when I recovered a lost bird and took it to a local pigeon man. He said he would let its owner know, but it would probably have its neck wrung because it was both lost and late, therefore of no further use to race. I was shocked at the callousness. I don't doubt this still goes on today. Pigeon racing is not just a pastime of the innocuous, as Mr Luscombe would have us believe. The best pigeons are highly prized and very valuable as are their offspring to sell. There is also the large amounts of money that changes hands in betting.

I believe what fanciers want is the destruction of predators, so this 'sport' can continue. The pigeon, far from home and facing weather and predators in a situation not of its making, must only feel fear. Birds of prey do just that, prey on other species, and I am aware, when hearing the screams of caught birds in woodland, of being absolutely distressed myself. But do we have the right to eliminate a species because we don't like what it has to do to survive, not for fun or sport remember?

One memory I have was from a wonderful holiday in Wales. We drove out to a reservoir in a remote area; walking up and down the parapet was a beautiful homing pigeon complete with ring. It was exhausted and very tame, though not tame enough to catch. We fed it with some of our picnic and spent about two hours, till dusk, trying to catch it without success. I knew its fate would be with the raptors that flew above as soon as it took off. I wished that pigeon fancier a plague on all his houses. The holiday was 21 years ago but the memory stays with me.

MRS E BRADFIELD

Wembury