"Catapult yobs kill and injure birds in Gloucester Park"

This is utterly appalling .... 

Evening Echo - Catapult yobs kill and injure birds in Gloucester Park

Facebook - Gloucester Park Community Group

What sort of mindless idiots get some kind of perverted enjoyment and pleasure from inflicting cruelty, pain and death on our wildlife?

This incident occurred in Gloucester Park, one of my local patch sites.

Essex Police are investigating.

Let's hope they catch those responsible and they are successfully prosecuted.

However, the issue is that our legislation related to wildlife crime is woefully inadequate to deter the ongoing volume of wildlife crime across our country whether that be the senseless killing of common birds in our local parks or the illegal persecution, poisoning and shooting of our magnificent birds of prey and other wildlife on upland grouse moor estates.

It is about time that this Government, any Government, substantially increased the sentencing powers of the courts to enable significant and substantial fines and custodial penalties for offenders.

If we really are a nation of "nature lovers", as we claim to be, let's start proving it.

Let's start repairing, restoring and rewilding our trashed environment.

Let's be serious about the protection and conservation of our wildlife and reintroduce species that we have forced in to extinction.

Let's stop projects such as HS2 and Heathrow Airport expansion that are not just gross examples of eco-vandalism but jeopardise our planet's future due to their impacts on the climate.

Let's care about the environment and wildlife in our immediate local areas which have so much to offer us in terms of our health and well-being, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and in our recovery in the coming years.

This was one local incident in Gloucester Park in my home town but it speaks to a much greater problem and the need for urgent solutions.

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Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature