A gang of catapult-wielding thugs has killed seven swans in one year, organisations have reported, igniting a hunt for the perpetrators of an “epidemic of cruelty and brutality”. A desperate search has been mounted for swan killers following a slew of attacks carried out on the majestic birds since January 27 this year.
Four initial attacks were recorded in Godstone and Old Wokingham in Surrey and Odiham in Hampshire, resulting in the deaths of two swans earlier this year.
Shepparton-based The Swan Sanctuary recorded a further five killings in and around Surrey during the first two weeks of 2024 alone.
The spate of killings has caused local heartbreak and an angry campaign against catapults, with witnesses reporting that they saw people firing projectiles into a bush.
Danni Rogers, a volunteer for The Swan Sanctuary, attended the first reported fatal swan attack in Old Woking on January 27 and a further two incidents in Odiham on January 30, resulting in another death.
The Daily Mail reports that witnesses are understood to have seen people firing into bushes beside the water where they were attacked.
A third bird was shot twice in the head with catapult missiles in Godstone on February 1, and while the swan survived, it lost an eye.
Images shared by the Swan Sanctuary on Facebook show the animal with a bloodied eye following the “brutal attack.
Captioning the picture, the original poster said they were “furious” that the birds were falling victim to an “epidemic of cruelty and brutality”.
They wrote: “I am beyond furious. Just in from Godstone rescued by Swans and Friends.
“This beautiful old gentleman has lost his eye and has a second wound in his head. How do we stop this epidemic of cruelty and brutality.”
Mr Rogers has since launched a petition calling for a ban on the sale of catapults and laws making carrying them in public illegal.
The petition on Parliament.uk has called for MPs to consider passing laws that would allow the police to “arrest those carrying, especially in areas of known wildlife crime”.
The wildlife rescuer said he believes the UK is in the midst of a “wildlife crime pandemic” due to the increase in reports of British wildlife being attacked by catapult-wielding youths.
He said up to 75 percent of his callouts were due to the “apparent abuse of wildlife offences”.
The petition has so far received 6,299 of the 10,000 it requires to be heard in Parliament, with a deadline of June 20, 2024, for people to submit their own.
