In a flap Unease at Taiwan's pigeon racing culture

Competitors have been kidnapped and then offered up for ransom.

- Helen Davidson and Jason Tzu Kuan Lu Taiwan

Others have reportedly been smuggled onto high-speed trains to get to the finish line first. Some are said to be kept hungry so that they move quicker on race day.

This is the fast and furious world of pigeon racing in Taiwan.

The sport is globally popular and centuries old, but few scenes are as bizarre as Taiwan's, where the stakes are high and no scheme is too complex or crafty for some.

Wu Chung-ming is chair of the national pigeon racing body and his local racing association. His desk is adorned with a kitschy pigeon-shaped ashtray, near a computer mining "Pigeoncoin" cryptocurrency. Parked outside is the Tesla he bought specifically for its gull-winged doors.

"At first, I wasn't particularly into it," he tells the Guardian. "But once I started getting involved, I met all these really passionate people who were crazy about the sport."

Wu is among members calling for regulation to address the shady sides of the sport and make it easier for rule-abiding competitors to compete cleanly and safely.

Taiwanese pigeon racing originated during Japanese colonial rule a century ago, later evolving into a pastime among working-class people from outside the cities.

It is now one of the world's largest with about 200,000 breeder-trainers and countless investors, across about 80 regional clubs racing up to a million birds a year. It has grown into a multimillion-dollar competitive industry, with official prize pools that can exceed 30m Taiwanese dollars (£730,000) a season. But it sits in a legal grey area.

"If it's illegal, then please shut us all down as soon as possible," Wu says. "But if it's legal, then shouldn't there be some policies in place to support us?"

The chaotic combination of low regulation and lots of cash has led to extraordinary behaviour, including what Wu says is a common scheme - cloning tracking chips to send a secret second bird over the finish line early.