I happened to read Simon Pickles' comments about pigeons (Letters, June 15). Shouldn't we get our own house in order first?

Birds, such as pigeons, and rats would not scavenge if it weren't for how we humans lived.

I was in Brighton and Hove recently and there was discarded food everywhere. It's hardly the cleanest place in Sussex, city or not. No wonder pigeons breed.

I made a few other observations, too. Mothers letting their children urinate in the street. People spitting and blowing their noses on to the pavement. The odd syringe lying about. Litter in general. People asking me to buy the Big Issue and asking for change.

What a cruel and nasty man Mr Pickles is, wanting the "kill the vermin". Is he so perfect, I wonder?

-Alison Franklin, Gordon Road, Haywards Heath