I WAS both shocked and saddened at the plight of pigeons in Hanley following the decision to kill them en masse (The Sentinel, July 25).

It would seem that the problem is actually human in origin.

Other councils show good care in the matter and use a variety of signs telling people not to feed pigeons or drop food around.

Pigeons breed in response to food availability, and in Hanley there's usually a lot of food (take aways, chips etc) just flung on the pavement by humans.

I think that children should be taught right from their early school days that dropping food not only upsets the council and the community, but it upsets the balance of nature, leading to a lot of misery for animals.

A form of feral pigeon control with some success is seed and food baited with avian contraceptives and where appropriate dummy egg nesting can be undertaken by locating where the pigeons are nesting, removing their eggs and replacing them with dummy ones, all these and many more could be tried, in addition to food deprivation.

I was born in Hanley myself and I think it would detract from the character of town if pigeons were more or less effaced from the streets, there must be a humane alternative to reduce numbers.

However while you have people in positions of responsibility thoughtlessly calling pigeons 'airborne rats' you will have those who will gladly resort to barbaric measures to control them.

Many people may not be aware of the significant role that pigeons played in the two world wars.

Thirty two of them received The Dickin medal of Gallantry carrying messages across enemy lines, and their exploits actually outnumber acts of gallantry by dogs and horses, and it was a pigeon which was the first creature to win that medal.

Instead of just going after them gung ho, we should thoroughly exhaust every other alternative control measure first, and not just callously destroy them.

GEORGE POWELL The Animal Rights & Freedom Association

Stoke on Trent