Killing for Fun: What A BBC Documentary Reveals About Catapult Crime

Did you catch the BBC iPlayer documentary about the rising tide of violence against wildlife, by groups of youths armed with catapults?

It’s called On the Front Line: Catapult Crime – Killing for Fun.

Joining Greenwich Wildlife Network founder and director, Rae is brilliant GWN waterbird rescue volunteer Chris, who has been tirelessly rescuing the many animals left broken by these attacks. 

If you want to understand how and why this campaign began, the documentary explains it powerfully.

You can also support the campaign by signing our parliamentary petition, which has just passed 37,000 signatures.

Remember: this is not "hunting for food". Wild birds, foxes, squirrels and other animals - both domestic and wild - are being deliberately targeted for fun and little else. Many are killed and left where they fall. Others survive with horrific injuries – missing eyes, shattered bones, permanent disabilities that leave them unable to fly or survive in the wild. Some suffer for days or weeks before dying.

Much of this violence is being carried out by groups of youths as young as 8, with videos of animal cruelty shared on social media as entertainment and status-seeking behaviour.

And it doesn’t stop with wildlife. In South East London and across the country, we are also seeing daily reports of catapults being used to target dogs, cats, people, buses, cars and windows.

Over this past weekend alone, we received a report every single day of animals being shot. That has become the norm for rescue organisations like ours. 

Please watch, share, sign the petition, and help us keep pressure on for better regulation of catapults, and for wildlife crime to be taken seriously. Animals should not be playthings for budding sadists.