Bedfordshire Police say they are looking for two boys who were caught on CCTV appearing to seriously injure and possibly kill a duck on the Longholme Lake in Bedford.
The attack happened at around 9pm on Saturday evening (15 July) on the boating lake outside The Longholme Cafe, whose CCTV captured the boys shooting at the duck with a catapult.
The duck is believed to be one of a family unit that is very trusting of humans and even lets people feed it by hand. In the footage, the boys are seen appearing to take turns firing at ducks sitting peacefully on the lakeside before hitting one.
The duck falls into the water seemingly flapping in pain. They then appear to take turns firing at it again. One of the boys then pulls the duck, still struggling to get away, out of the lake.
The other boy then appears to take aim again and the duck appears to fall still. One boy then picks up the duck by its wing and they run away with it out of view of the camera.
A second camera then shows the boys standing over the duck by some trees before they appear to take aim and shoot at it again.
Outrage
In a statement on their Facebook page, the owners of The Longolme Cafe said they “won’t hesitate to step in and project (sic) the natural beauty of the area, including the wildlife, by reporting what we see.”
The CCTV footage which has been shared on social media has been met with disgust.
“If you know these boys please get in touch as they clearly need some sort of help if they think this is acceptable, and from what it looked like as they can be seen laughing, some sort of fun?” said one person.
“What is wrong with them it makes me sick,” said another. Someone else added, “They have no morals & no respect for life.”
PC Hayley Robinson says they are now working with local partners and currently reviewing CCTV which shows one boy wearing black tracksuit bottoms with a grey hoodie and the other boy wearing black shorts and a black t-shirt.
“This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable in our community,” said PC Hayley, “We will not tolerate any form of animal cruelty to our wildlife and want to thank the public for sharing this information with us.”
Adding to the call for information, the Longholme Cafe owners added, “Do you know where your son was at this time? Do they have a sling shot?”
Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, all wild birds are protected and it is illegal, except under licence, to take, injure or kill wild birds or to take, damage or destroy their eggs or nest whilst it is in use or being built.
The maximum penalty, if found guilty, is six months in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
If anyone was in the area at the time, or saw anything that could help our investigation please call 101 or at their website quoting 494 of 15 July.
