Police to intervene more strongly after swan attacks

Police are not doing enough to protect swans and other birds on the Thames from attacks, a charity says.

Wendy Hermon of Swan Support said birds were regularly attacked with air guns and catapults.

She said the situation had become “ridiculous” and believed officials were not taking attacks on wildlife as seriously as they should.

Thames Valley Police did not respond to a request for comment.

Ms Hermon, whose charity rescues injured birds and reports incidents to the police, told BBC Radio Berkshire: “I’ve been doing this for 30 years and it’s absolutely grueling and exhausting.”

“Every week we go to something – and nothing gets done. Wildlife crime must be treated as a top priority.”

She believed that offenders who committed this type of animal cruelty were more likely to commit more serious crimes.

‘Nothing happens’

Ms Hermon cited as an example an attack in April in which a swan was injured in Wraysbury, Berkshire.

Five bullets were found in the swan’s head, neck and wings, presumably from a catapult and an air gun. The swan underwent surgery to remove the bullets but later died.

A Facebook post said the last school holidays had been “horrific” in terms of bird attacks and that Windsor had been a “hotspot”.

The post said that “several pigeons, three geese, two ducks and a coot” were killed over four evenings and that the incidents had been reported to police.

Ms Hermon said: “Shooting animals, not just swans and birds, leads to different things as you get older.

“It’s not just swans and birds that are suffering, but also animals, cats and dogs. We’ve received calls that dogs have been hit by cars in Datchet.”

She added: “We meet regularly with Thames Valley Police. Our main issue was that we felt they were not doing enough to tackle wildlife crime compared to other police forces.

“Swan Support recognises that there may be more pressing cases that need to be dealt with, but we feel that wildlife crime is not at the top of their list.

“Sometimes the police say they are doing something and nothing happens.”

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