I believe that they are 'live young birds' rather than chicks exactly, reared in cages and then fired out of some contraption, like a live version of clay pigeon shooting. A friend who is an activist for animal welfare told me about it. It just sounded to me like the dumbest excuse for a sport I'd ever heard. The 'game' is apparantly inedible, because the birds are too immature. Meaning you'd end up with a handful of feathers and a mouthful of lead shot. I can't vouch for any of this, as it's secondhand. But it does sound to me like precisely the kind of thing the current breed of bourgiousie would enjoy.

Falconry however is IMO in a completely different league. And a totally different thing. As is hunting for rabbits with dogs or just a shotgun. A friend of mine who was vegetarian for twenty years, now goes out and hunts his own game with a rifle. Pheasant or rabbit mainly, thouhg I don't think he's too fussy. And I have heard of people eating squirrels and pigeons. I have complete respect for that.

Sure, all carnivores in captivity must be fed. A falcon being fed chicks is no different to me buying tinned food for my cats. Though tinned cat food doesn't really have the emotive fluffy tweet-tweet appeal of baby chicks ;-)