Chiu said he paid NT$60,000 (US$1,800) into a bank account nominated by an anonymous telephone caller after eight of his pigeons went missing during a training session in August.

He got seven back. “It hurt my heart so much,” said Chiu, 43, chairman of Taoyuan County Messenger Pigeon Club.

Taiwan courts convicted 16 people in separate cases of pigeon-napping last year in northern Taoyuan county alone. With an estimated NT$10 billion pooled by racers each year for prize money — the international sport’s biggest tax-free cash haul — owners are taking to the hills to try to foil criminals who string nets across flight paths.

A pigeon imported from breeding hubs such as Belgium and Germany costs as much as NT$5 million, said Kang Ping-yao, 54, a fancier from Taipei county.

“Pigeon owners are the kidnappers’ helpless prey,” said Lee Chen-nan, a lawmaker from Taoyuan. “The police should stamp out this evil.”

About 30,000 enthusiasts keep sports pigeons on the island, where race starts are broadcast live on television and owners study birds’ eyes, looking for clues to pedigree and prospects.

Pigeon-napping isn’t an offense under Taiwanese law. Extortion is punishable by jail terms of six months to five years, according to the Justice Ministry. Some abductors may be charged with theft, which carries a maximum five-year sentence.

In December, Taoyuan District Court sentenced Hsueh Teh-chang to 1 1/2 years in prison on 48 counts of extortion. Between Feb. 9 and April 6 last year, Hsueh and two accomplices netted birds, called the phone numbers on their leg tags and demanded ransoms, court records show.

Hsueh’s most ambitious demand — NT$300,000 for 21 birds — failed when the owner refused to pay, the court was told. His best payload: NT$12,000 for eight racers.

Owner Chiu said he didn’t call the police when his pigeons were snatched because investigations take too much time.

Officers investigate all reported cases, said Chih Shang-kuo, a police captain at Kueishan in Taoyuan. As for crime prevention, “we just don’t have enough hands to deal with it.”

Pigeons have a homing instinct that scientists are unable to explain. A 12th-century Baghdad sultan is credited with establishing the first message-carrying pigeon post.

Chen the telegraph became the main form of communication in the mid 1800s, pigeon redundancies encouraged Belgian breeders to turn to racing. Brussels remains the sport’s international home.

Japanese colonialists introduced races to Taiwan around 1930. Fanciers from one area take their birds to a single location and release them simultaneously. Electronic tags tell judges which pigeon has arrived at its home coop first.

Taiwanese race about 2 million pigeons, said Tony Wang, who publishes Performance Pigeon Worldwide magazine in Taipei. Sales of birds, coops, feed, drugs and veterinary care help support 300,000 people, he said.

Some owners cosset their birds with Chinese herbs. Others dose them with steroids, said Lee Chao-yang, a veterinarian in Taipei who treats 10 to 20 feathered kidnap victims a month.

Netted birds suffer scratches, fractures, broken feathers and stress, Lee said. Some aren’t able to compete again. To help thwart netters, enthusiasts ship pigeons as far as 300 kilometers (180 miles) offshore before releasing them.

On the northern tip of Taiwan on April 7, Chen Sheng watches a crane load 35,000 pigeons in crates onto his 1,355-ton ship. The former refueling barge is among 12 chartered for races.

Back on land, Shen Teng-lin and 14 pigeon-racing clubmates are staking out Taiwan’s hills. Illegal nets may stretch across 500 meters (1,600 feet).

Regular club patrols search out nets and lay in wait for miscreants, said Shen, a fisherman from Ilan county. Captives are handed over to the police.

Still, Shen didn’t report his latest pigeon-napping either. He paid NT$2,000 for one bird in March, he said.

“I’m scared they will seek revenge if I report them,” Shen said. “Next time they get my pigeons, they won’t return them.”

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