Just as an another thought to this. Australia was the live bird shootiing mecca for many years until the last State banned it in 1956. During the Depression years, there was much ill feeling about 'good meat' in pigeons being 'wasted' in pigeon comps that were then still very popoular and socially acceptable events, often being held on major farm holdings by the wealthy (we called them the land'ed gentry)..anyway, to the point...the poverty here during the Depression was extreme, and the thought of wasting good pigeon meat meant that sparrows and starlings were introduced as alternative targets. You can imagine how hard there were to hit, but there was little left after a hit by a full choke of 7's, even with 21 yards 'start'. After the Depression they kept sparrow events as novelty events. The pugeon rsumed his rightful place as the target.These days, the by now feral blue rock pigeons have interbred with feral carrier pigeons and (quite incongruosly) moved themselves back into the major towns and cities, where today they are a darn pest. Personally I fail to see any difference breeding any caged bird for slaughter (eg: chickens)and breeding/using pigeons for gun competition,
