July last year proved to be one of the most difficult periods in the history of Swan Support.

Sadly, the swans in our care were attacked by youths with catapults. They broke into our premises and constantly fired catapults torturing the swans for a full 20mins.  As a result of this deliberate and mindless act, 2 cygnets and 2 adults were killed, and several others were injured - 2 with life altering injuries! All of which was recorded on CCTV!

An individual was arrested and charged with unnecessary suffering to protected animals.  They appeared in court last week and pleaded guilty resulting in only a 6mnth referral order!  It is an extremely disappointing outcome, and in our opinion far too lenient given the magnitude of the crime.

Wildlife crime is on the increase with the number of deliberate acts of cruelty escalating, however it is not deemed a current priority - further action needs to be taken to tackle this endemic behaviour and invest in protecting our wildlife.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (WCA 1981) protects wild animals, plants and habitats.  Sections 1-8 look at the protection of Wild Birds - these sections contain provisions aimed at protecting wild birds from being killed or injured and makes it a criminal offence to carry out certain activities which would result in wild birds being harmed in those ways. This carries a penalty of up to six months' imprisonment, a level five fine or both.

We regularly attend to deal with the aftermath of these deliberate acts of cruelty and are never able to get justice for the victims because of no evidence….however the attack at our site was an opportunity for an example to be set in line with the harsher penalties that can be passed for such an attack, to both show the severity of such crimes will not be tolerated and to act as a deterrent….for us it is upsetting to see it wasn’t.

As per the 2021 WCL Wildlife Crime Report, we are supportive of the current recommendations:

1. Make wildlife crimes notifiable

2. Increasing resources for wildlife crime teams

3. Reform wildlife crime legislation

Wildlife crime is unlikely to reduce unless a comprehensive plan to tackle this is fully supported across Government with the above recommendations taken into consideration.

It also proven that those who commit such crimes tend to escalate so preventing this behaviour will help to reduce crime overall.

We will be appealing the outcome and are asking for support with this petition to help us to campaign for stronger penalties and enforcement. This will be sent to the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) AGO (Attorney General's Office) and all MP's.

Thank you for your support.

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/helpswansupportbuildabrighterfutureforswans?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=campaign&utm_content=helpswansupportbuildabrighterfutureforswans&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=0ee9d97f80ef464b956c35a20199ff23