Authorities urged to do more amid steep rise in catapult attacks on wildlife

A swan rescue and treatment charity has seen its vet bills soar in the past several months – having seen a rise in groups of young people attacking wildlife with catapults.

Catapult injuries have cost Swan Lifeline the same amount in three months of 2025 as the whole of 2024.

Swan Lifeline is based out of Cuckoo Weir Island in Eton and covers a 50-mile radius.

It has been seeing a lot of attacks around Windsor and surrounding areas, said site manager Molly Claydon – as well as other hotspots, including Iver.

The problem is complicated, as anglers may legally use catapults to launch bait into the water.

Given this legitimate usage, catapults are not banned in the UK, though it is certainly illegal to use them to attack protected wildlife.

But there is also no age restriction on the sale of catapults, which is a deep concern for Swan Lifeline, as many of the assailants are children – some as young as eight years old.

Molly said she has been at the charity for five years and ‘rarely’ heard of catapult shootings in her first three years.

Now it is much more common, with many animals having as faced attacks that leave them with ‘severe, life-changing injuries.’

Swan Lifeline does outreach to schools – but feels there needs to be both more of an education push and more changes at the Government level.

Social media may be partially to blame, including instant messaging apps, Molly thinks.

“Last year, the police found a WhatsApp group that had over 5,000 people in it, and it was all about shooting wildlife and then showing off what they’ve killed,” she said.

She added: “Some of it is in broad daylight. We’re down quite a quiet lane and we’ve actually found a couple of ball bearings outside of our gate, and children with catapults.

“We do have CCTV, but the thought of anybody coming onto this site and trying to catapult [the birds] makes me very nervous, very angry.

“There’s no respect. Whenever we’ve been called out, people get abused, shouted at and sworn.”

On the plus side, police will show up if they learn of someone firing a catapult.

If someone sees wildlife being shot, they can call 999 – even though it might not seem serious enough for that, it is a crime in progress, so 999 is the right number.

“[Police] are getting better and in certain areas there has been more of a crackdown on it in the last few months,” said Molly.

Over at another local swan charity, Swan Support, the picture is the same.

Wendy Hermon, director, said they recently found a dead heron, attacks on three pigeons, a squirrel and a goose, all in Windsor.

To fight back against this trend, Swan Support is in conversations with RBWM to look into a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) tackling the misuse of catapults.

A PSPO can cover the whole of a local authority or targeted areas and prohibit certain activities in a defined public area if the activity has a persistent detrimental effect on the area.

They have been used to crack down on street drinking, dogs off leads, possession of nitrous oxide in public places, skateboarding or sports in car parks, or to ban night fishing, among other examples.

It’s been ‘hard work’ to get to this point, said Wendy, but there has been stronger support – the police have been ‘really pushing’ for it, she said.

A Government spokesperson said: “Catapults should not be used for illegal purposes, whether against people, wildlife or property.

“We continue to keep all relevant legislation under review in the interest of public safety.”

The spokesperson added that currently, the Government believes current law is the correct balance between protecting the public and allowing the public to enjoy legitimate pastimes.