While making it clear that I do not share Ray Cordina’s passion for trapping birds (Finch Trapper Lamenting Loss Of His Beloved Hobby, September 19), I cannot help but voice my opinion since so many bloggers have reacted so strongly, some to the point of insolence.

I would just like to ask these sanctimonious persons how many of them sit down, without a qualm, to a dinner of battery-bred chicken, caged rabbits and quail, penned pigs and cows?

Do they perhaps think these animals are roaming about freely in the countryside before they pop into supermarket freezers or do they consider them to be inferior to finches?

As for the argument that it is cruel to keep birds caged, it is pertinent to point out that birds are not permanently kept in 15x20cm cages.

Trappers and breeders transfer them to aviaries where they can stretch their wings and fly about, are very well cared for and live longer than they do in the wild. It is unfair to portray bird breeders and trappers as the pot-bellied layabout in an undervest with a cage under his armpit, smoking a cigarette on the church parvis.

If, as Mr Cordina is suggesting, the number of finches trapped is limited, all our nature-lovers and environmentally conscious champions of animal welfare will still be able to enjoy the singing of birds, if ever they venture out into the countryside after all!