I read the article in the paper about the Olympic Torch celebrations. It is unfortunate that it did not mention the involvement of former Olympians. It might have helped with our search of these athletes.

However, the main thing that concerned me is the plan to release birds at some point in the ceremony. Birds that are acquired for this purpose are born and raised in captivity and do not learn to seek their own food or the natural fear of predators. The fate of these birds is inevitably death from starvation which is particularly likely due to lack of available food in the winter or at the hands of a predator.

I'm sure that I would not be alone in asking that the birds not be a part of our celebration.
Virginia Ridpath
via e-mail