Ducks and swans killed by children armed with catapults

Children armed with catapults are believed to be behind a string of deadly attacks on ducks, swans and other waterfowl on the Berkshire/Surrey borders.

The incidents have happened at lakes in Finchampstead, Camberley, Sandhurst and Yateley, as the birds prepare to nest and bring up their chicks.

One of the swan rescuers who has been tasked with dealing with the aftermath has called for the children and teenagers involved to be arrested, prosecuted and jailed.

Danni Rogers, who drives a veterinary ambulance attending call-outs to help injured and dying animals, said he was disgusted by the spate of incidents in the past few days.

Speaking at California Country Park in Finchampstead where a brutally decapitated duck was found, Mr Rogers said that the group of yobs that go to the public park armed with catapults, a crossbow or even an air rifle “need to be put in prison."

In the latest in a string of very similar incidents, Mr Rogers said he had been called to a swan's nest that had seven eggs inside but four had been smashed with a large concrete bolder.

At the same time, another volunteer at Swans and Friends Bird Rescue had to chase a teenager out of California Country Park who was holding a catapult targeting pellets at ducks.

Mr Rogers said: "Just moments later they found a duck's head near where the youth was with the catapult."

He told how colleagues had also found a coot lying upside down and dead in the pond at the same park.

The volunteer, who is passionate about wildlife, explained how he had pulled out arrows from swans' necks, some of which were long bolts.

He said: “I don’t know why these thugs do it. Why are they taking out their frustration over life out on innocent birds and animals. Is it because there are no ramifications if they do it?  There are often no prosecutions."

Mr Rogers said that he was part of a wide network of people who rescue animals but nothing had compared with the number of call-outs to attacks on animals that he has had to deal with in Camberley and Yateley.

He said that he gets at least one or more calls a week about a dead or injured animal, adding: “It’s a huge problem.

"Unfortunately I have friends that do this all over the world and they have had four or five incidents in the time compared with the high number of call-outs we’ve had in this small area that I cover."