A Rising Tide of Cruelty: The Surge in Weapon Attacks on Cats and Other Animals

[Social Media]

 

The rising number of weapon attacks on cats in England and Wales has become an alarming trend, highlighting a disturbing increase in violence against animals. The RSPCA, a leading animal welfare charity, has raised the alarm, revealing that such attacks more than doubled in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. People using airguns, slingshots, and crossbows, often for what they consider “fun,” are driving this surge in cruelty.

 

According to data released by the RSPCA, 44 cats were shot with weapons like air guns, slingshots, catapults, or crossbows between January and June 2024. This marks a significant increase from the 18 cases recorded during the same period in the previous year. The rise in attacks is not limited to cats; the overall number of weapon attacks on animals has also grown, with a 23% increase noted from 2022 to 2023. Specifically, the number of incidents rose from 300 in 2022 to 370 in 2023.

 

 

The RSPCA has been vocal about the need for heightened vigilance against such abuses, particularly as these cases often peak during the summer months. Geoff Edmond, the RSPCA's lead wildlife officer, expressed deep concern over the motives behind these attacks. He noted that many individuals commit these acts of violence purely for amusement, describing the behavior as "unspeakably cruel and totally unacceptable." Edmond emphasized that animals are often targeted for “fun” or even used for target practice, leading to devastating consequences. “Sadly,” he added, “we receive nearly 200 reports every year.”

 

 

The consequences for the animals involved are often dire. Cats, in particular, suffer life-changing injuries, with blindness being a common outcome. In some tragic cases, these attacks result in death. The RSPCA highlighted the case of Rocket, a tabby cat from Nottinghamshire who had been shot twice with an airgun. Rocket lost an eye and sustained severe, life-altering injuries. Such incidents underscore the severe and lasting impact these cruel actions have on animals.

 

The charity also reported a concerning rise in crossbow attacks, with 11 incidents in 2023 compared to seven in 2022. Similarly, the number of attacks involving catapults and slingshots has also seen an increase, from 27 incidents in 2022 to 28 in 2023. Between 2020 and 2023, a total of 896 weapon attacks on animals were recorded, with Kent reporting the highest number of incidents at 61. This was followed by Greater London with 52 incidents, and the West Midlands and Merseyside, each with 36 reported cases.

 

Edmond described these weapon attacks as horrific, emphasizing that the reported cases likely represent only a fraction of the actual number of incidents. “While most people will be appalled by attacking animals in this way, sadly, the RSPCA’s experience shows that there are people out there who are deliberately targeting wildlife, pets, and farm animals with guns, catapults, and crossbows,” he said. “These weapons cause horrific pain and suffering.”

 

In response to this disturbing trend, the RSPCA is collaborating with law enforcement agencies to combat such crimes. The charity is involved in developing Operation Lakeshot, a police-led partnership initiative initially established by Essex police and the Metropolitan police. This initiative aims to tackle crimes against wildlife, providing a coordinated approach to addressing and reducing these acts of cruelty.

 

Recent cases recorded by the RSPCA further illustrate the severity of the problem. In April, Narla, a three-year-old cat from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was shot in the abdomen with an airgun, resulting in a ruptured spleen. Narla survived, but only after undergoing significant veterinary treatment. In another case, a fox in Chatham, Kent, had to be euthanized after being shot with a catapult by a group of teenagers in May 2024. And in July, a dead hedgehog was found in Newbury with a 10mm diameter metal ball lodged in its skull, a grim indication that it had been targeted with a catapult.

 

The increasing number of weapon attacks on animals in England and Wales is a deeply troubling issue that demands urgent attention. The RSPCA’s efforts to raise awareness and work with law enforcement through initiatives like Operation Lakeshot are crucial steps toward addressing this crisis. However, it is clear that more needs to be done to protect vulnerable animals from such senseless acts of cruelty.

 

The public’s role in remaining vigilant and reporting suspicious activities is also vital in the fight against these crimes. Only through collective effort can we hope to stem the rising tide of violence against animals and ensure a safer environment for all creatures.

 

Credit: The Guardian  2024-08-09

 

 

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[Cryingdick]

Cats are pests that kill anything they can.

[Tug]

1 hour ago, Cryingdick said:

Cats are pests that kill anything they can.

Have to agree with you that cats are effective predators great at killing pests like rats and mice.that being said anyone killing or injuring any creature just for (fun) needs to grow up and face consequences for their behavior.

[thaipo7]

6 hours ago, Tug said:

Have to agree with you that cats are effective predators great at killing pests like rats and mice.that being said anyone killing or injuring any creature just for (fun) needs to grow up and face consequences for their behavior.

WOW Tug - This is the second thing I agree with you.  Should have seen how animals were treated 53 years ago.  Didn't even see a cat.  Dogs were for guarding only.  No need to feed them.  If they stole some rice out of a dish or bowl, it was followed by a severe beating.  

t

[RuamRudy]

7 hours ago, Tug said:

Have to agree with you that cats are effective predators great at killing pests like rats and mice.that being said anyone killing or injuring any creature just for (fun) needs to grow up and face consequences for their behavior.

 

I am not sure it's a matter of maturity. If you take pleasure from torturing or killing animals, there is something seriously wrong with you, psychologically. Time and experience is unlikely to fix that defect. 

[JonnyF]

10 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

 

I am not sure it's a matter of maturity. If you take pleasure from torturing or killing animals, there is something seriously wrong with you, psychologically. Time and experience is unlikely to fix that defect. 

 

Agree. Killing animals at a young age is a great indicator of psychopathy. Many serial killer started with animals.

 

Just like the ex BBC zoologist recently convicted for harming dogs. Although it seems a penchant for harming children or animals ticks one of the many boxes required to work for the state funded leftist propaganda machine that is the BBC. 

[RuamRudy]

8 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

Agree. Killing animals at a young age is a great indicator of psychopathy. Many serial killer started with animals.

 

Just like the ex BBC zoologist recently convicted for harming dogs. Although it seems a penchant for harming children or animals ticks one of the many boxes required to work for the state funded leftist propaganda machine that is the BBC. 

 

I was thinking more of the tory party or the British royal family - lots of members of both organisations take pleasure in killing animals indiscriminately. 

 

Jacob Mogg, Charles Windsor, Windsor's kids and predecessors, all love to go out killing animals because they can. Sick, deviant individuals the lot of them. 

[ThaiFelix]

I think its a pretty good indcator of the mental health of todays youth.  Im sure were not meant to live in concrete jungles with the fears we have today.

[nobodysfriend]

11 hours ago, Social Media said:

attacks more than doubled in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. People using airguns, slingshots, and crossbows, often for what they consider “fun,” are driving this surge in cruelty.

 

Only Zombies without a soul make things like that . And they are increasing in numbers .

The treatment of animals tells a lot about the state a society is in ...

 

The predators that deserve to be culled normally walk on two legs only ...

 

[JonnyF]

40 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

 

I was thinking more of the tory party or the British royal family - lots of members of both organisations take pleasure in killing animals indiscriminately. 

 

Jacob Mogg, Charles Windsor, Windsor's kids and predecessors, all love to go out killing animals because they can. Sick, deviant individuals the lot of them. 

 

Actually foxes are a pest. They will kill 100 chickens and eat one. If you saw a chicken coop after a fox visited you would understand indiscriminate killing. Many of the chickens still alive and bleeding to death slowly, missing limbs etc.

 

Comparing fox/pest removal to the torture and rape of animals by ex BBC employees just shows how far down the anti Royal rabbit hole you have gone. 

 

Fortunately the SNP are no longer a serious political force. Your anti British anti Royal rhetoric is going down with them.

[RuamRudy]

55 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

 

Actually foxes are a pest. They will kill 100 chickens and eat one. If you saw a chicken coop after a fox visited you would understand indiscriminate killing. Many of the chickens still alive and bleeding to death slowly, missing limbs etc.

 

Comparing fox/pest removal to the torture and rape of animals by ex BBC employees just shows how far down the anti Royal rabbit hole you have gone. 

 

Fortunately the SNP are no longer a serious political force. Your anti British anti Royal rhetoric is going down with them.

 

Do the pest exterminators down your way usually dress up in red coats and blow horns on horseback while chasing their quarry across miles and miles of countryside before smearing the blood of their victims across their faces? 

 

Farmers dispatch of vermin with efficiency; they don't actively take pleasure in the act of killing an animal simply for the sake of it, something you were against only a couple of posts ago. 

 

The Royals must be called out for their obsession with wildlife slaughter

 

[impulse]

The final report found that every year, each individual feral cat in Australia kills 390 mammals, 225 reptiles and 130 birds. That adds up.

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/australias-cats-kill-two-billion-animals-annually-180977235/

 

Australia is at war – with feral cats. By 2020, the government wants to kill two million free roaming cats, a large chunk of the total feral cat population, which is estimated to be between 2 and 6 million.

 

Some areas of Australia have gone even further. In the northeastern state of Queensland, there’s even a council offering a $10 ($7) bounty per feral cat scalp – a policy People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has lambasted as “cruel.”

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/26/asia/feral-cats-australia-intl/index.html

 

Of course, I'd rather see it done as humanely as possible, but culling feral cats may be a necessity if you want to protect native wildlife.
 

[billd766]

So how do you get rid stray cats?

 

We have one tabby cat probably about 4 or 5 months old that adopted us.

 

This last couple of weeks there have been 2 older cats hanging around and trying to steal our cats food and trying to get in anywhere they can.

 

I think that one may belong to a neighbour, but I have no idea where the other one comes from.

[Lacessit]

Anyone who tortures or kills cats and dogs  is statistically more likely to graduate to humans later.

 

Even if they don't, it's a sign of an underlying mental health conditions.

[Lacessit]

17 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

Cats are pests that kill anything they can.

There's a lot of childless cat ladies who would disagree with you. They are fur children to them.

 

IMO cats have more personality than dogs, although I like both.

[Cryingdick]

20 hours ago, Tug said:

Have to agree with you that cats are effective predators great at killing pests like rats and mice.that being said anyone killing or injuring any creature just for (fun) needs to grow up and face consequences for their behavior.

 

i didn't really mean killing cats for fun is a goody thing. I think cats should be systematically culled because of the environmental damage they do. They kill billions of birds a year, amongst other things. Dead cats are not on the top of my list of concerns in this world.

[metisdead]

An offensive troll post has been removed. 

[transam]

On 8/9/2024 at 4:57 AM, Cryingdick said:

Cats are pests that kill anything they can.

Seems you know nothing.......

[transam]

On 8/9/2024 at 2:45 PM, ThaiFelix said:

I think its a pretty good indcator of the mental health of todays youth.  Im sure were not meant to live in concrete jungles with the fears we have today.

Or, the kids should be out playing, doing sport instead of sitting on the sofa with their small screen killing everything on it with their video games, it must do something to a few with dodgy brain cells.....

[transam]

14 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

 

i didn't really mean killing cats for fun is a goody thing. I think cats should be systematically culled because of the environmental damage they do. They kill billions of birds a year, amongst other things. Dead cats are not on the top of my list of concerns in this world.

My cat eats birds, do you eat birds, or are you a veggy....?......🤔

My cat also kills rats, are you against it killing rats...?

Not seen my cats kill anything else, isn't that strange.

 

My cats are also spotlessly clean, they are always cleaning themselves, I wish the dog would do the same....

[radiochaser]

5 minutes ago, transam said:

My cat eats birds, do you eat birds, or are you a veggy....?......🤔

My cat also kills rats, are you against it killing rats...?

Not seen my cats kill anything else, isn't that strange.

 

My cats are also spotlessly clean, they are always cleaning themselves, I wish the dog would do the same....

 

And me wondering what is wrong with an orange and white tabby running around the condo building where our condo is.   Dirtiest cat I have ever seen!

[transam]

1 minute ago, radiochaser said:

 

And me wondering what is wrong with an orange and white tabby running around the condo building where our condo is.   Dirtiest cat I have ever seen!

Probably of the wild category, we have many farangy's like that too......🤗

[WDSmart]

Arrest the perpetrators for animal cruelty and don't just fine them but "lock 'em up!"

[The Fugitive]

7 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Arrest the perpetrators for animal cruelty and don't just fine them but "lock 'em up!"

In my home area (UK) a teenage girl shot a cat in her garden. The crossbow bolt went completely through the animal. The girl was sentenced to three months imprisonment.

[JustMyOpinion]

14 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Arrest the perpetrators for animal cruelty and don't just fine them but "lock 'em up!"

Starting with the animals' owners who openly display disregard for the safety of the animals by letting them roam free... right???

[WDSmart]

10 minutes ago, JustMyOpinion said:

25 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Arrest the perpetrators for animal cruelty and don't just fine them but "lock 'em up!"

Starting with the animals' owners who openly display disregard for the safety of the animals by letting them roam free... right???

If the animal is breaking any law or causing harm, steps can be taken to stop that. But killing the animal should not be allowed unless the harm is life-threatening. Yes, if the animal has an owner, that would be the same as a child causing problems who has a parent. The parent/owner could be held responsible.

[The Fugitive]

35 minutes ago, JustMyOpinion said:

Starting with the animals' owners who openly display disregard for the safety of the animals by letting them roam free... right???

Safety of the animals isn't my prime concern. I believe the public has the right not to endure excrement everywhere and dogs chasing them.

[WDSmart]

7 minutes ago, The Fugitive said:

Safety of the animals isn't my prime concern. I believe the public has the right not to endure excrement everywhere and dogs chasing them.

Animal excrement and aggressive dogs are not my prime concern. I believe these animals have the right to live and killing them is a crime.

[freeworld]

52 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

If the animal is breaking any law or causing harm, steps can be taken to stop that. But killing the animal should not be allowed unless the harm is life-threatening. Yes, if the animal has an owner, that would be the same as a child causing problems who has a parent. The parent/owner could be held responsible.

Animal breaking the law...lol.

 

Just pathetic psychos who want to control, inflict pain and harm on other species.

[The Fugitive]

16 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Animal excrement and aggressive dogs are not my prime concern. I believe these animals have the right to live and killing them is a crime.

Thai friends keep dogs and appear to treat them very well. However, they won't have them spayed. I would happily give them the money. Recently, one gave birth to six puppies. Next time we visited I asked where they were? My Mrs explained that 'some big bird must have carried them away'. I suppose that translates as husband took his spade to them?