The RSPCA is investigating after a female buzzard was found having being shot in the head with an airgun pellet.
The buzzard was found in the front garden of a house in Walpole St Peter near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. Unfortunately there are no details about when this discovery was made.
The RSPCA said the bird was thin and weak and was taken to a vet in Ely where an x-ray revealed the buzzard had an airgun pellet lodged in her head. It was considered ‘a miracle’ that it had missed both the skull and the eye.
The charity said the wound was infected and as the bird was emaciated it was likely she had been shot some time ago.
The buzzard has been put on antibiotics and pain relief and may need an operation to remove the pellet.
Vets think the pellet may be interfering with her eyesight, but hope she will be strong enough to be released into the wild eventually.
RSPCA inspector David Podmore said: “It is upsetting to think that this beautiful bird was deliberately targeted and shot. While we do not know where the shooting would have happened, this is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
“We would urge anyone with any information about how this bird came to be harmed to call the RSPCA Inspector appeal line on 0300 123 8018 or the police.”
This news article was originally reported on the ITV website here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
This awful persecution of raptors seems to be on the increase, these people don’t deserve airspace.
Sad but all to common, a youngster with an air gun thinking a bird of prey fair game – these people grow up to become gamekeepers.
Don’t just blame youngsters ……
It is just simple: there are too many people who cannot be trusted with any sort of firearm. Hard on those who are “responsible” but I would like to see a total ban on shotguns, rifles & air weapons in private hands. They should be either locked up in gun clubs and released for specific, closely managed events (clay shooting, target shooting, etc), used by professionals for use in conservation (professional deer stalking, not those sickos who do it for fun) and I don’t consider that any farmer or gamekeeper meets any of those criteria during the normal course of their work.
Airguns are anathema in the eyes of compassionate people. One of our national newspapers back in 1974 showed a young boy who had lost an eye to an airgun pellet fired by an “adult”. Adulthood, to me, means the conferment of having a mature and responsible nature, and not one of reaching 18 or 21. When I was a lad and walking one day in a park, I saw an older boy with a air rifle shoot a bird perched on a branch, and could do nothing about. When older, on my allotment, I became target practice for an eleven year old sniper. The Highland Cattle in a public park were found to have airgun pellets fired into their muzzles, and local farmers complained of their animals being subject to attack. Who or what was holding back legislation that would give the courts greater powers in dealing with such cruel crime? The shooting lobby represented/embedded in our House of Commons had power and influence to ensure that the caring public would be thwarted, until it got too out of hand. Centuries of bad practice hunting, shooting and fishing required revision, and those reluctant to change, cut down to size and their agents retrained in compliant with law practice.
In the now ghastly present, we are facing relentless climate change and great suffering through drought, fire, storm and flood, with an immense threat to biodiversity, all unrelentingly heading us towards the grand discomfort of humanity. The Elephant in the Room is the persistence of “sports”, hobbies, obsessive trophy shooting, and ease of acquiring knives and guns, all needing amendment or ban.
In short, everything mankind touches, is screwed forever.
I’m with you 💯 percent everything you have said. It’s sickening what is happening to our natural world. We thing as humans that we can do what the hell we like. And I’m sad to say people are getting away with it. The government isn’t playing it’s part in helping nature. It’s against the law but it’s not being enforced. The police and courts don’t care simple as that. Absolutely shocking
More vile evil cruelty to nature by , nasty humans
A review of firearms legislation is long overdue.
I would suggest that airguns and bb guns should require a firearms licence in a similar manner to Sect 1 firearms and shotguns. At the moment the law regarding the sale, possession and use of airguns is simply to lax, and they end up in the possession of dysfunctional individuals, who neither understand the law or care about the consequences of their actions.
As Mr Hart correctly points out in his post, wildlife and nature is having to contend with climate change, a massive loss of natural habitat all which has led to an extinction crisis. What nature doesn’t need is further persecution by humans either through the use of firearms, poisons or indiscriminate traps and snares.
Hopefully this buzzard is now in good hands, and will go onto to make a full recovery.
I hope this story is covered by main stream media, so that the wider public are made aware of just what is happening to this nations wildlife, and how the misuse of airguns and other firearms by morons not only impacts on human safety but also the safety of the nations wildlife.
I also hope the RSPCA and RSPB pick up on this incident and use it to inform politicians as to why the nations wildlife needs much greater protection not just through environmental protection schemes but from those in our society who should never be given access to means to cause so much suffering.
It should not be legal for anyone under 21 to keep an air rifle, as they are potentially a lethal weapon.
They are a good tool for responsible people like farmers to control rabbit population in their crops and rats in barns, which is much better than leaving these awful, often illegal poisons around.
Unfortunately, you only have to see some of these air rifle magazines which play to people who want to don camo clothing, think they are sas snipers, go into woodland and shoot anything that moves.
There was a photo in a mag I once saw, of a crow being shot on a garage roof. The comment was,” gotcha and you didn’t even know you were dead.”
Just shot for fun. There are some sick people around and air guns should be licensed.
You touch on a very valid point regarding the “wanna be Rambos” who dress up in camouflage clothing and visit the countryside with their air weapons, bb guns or high powered catapults. Individuals who often have no idea of the law regarding the use of the weapon they posses, or the laws which protect nature and the environment.
I remember once watching a documentary about an individual who believed he was displaying “alpha male” characteristics by going off and hunting wildlife. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was clearly a very delusional individual, and would most probably have soiled himself had he been facing an adversary which had the potential to cause him harm. Sadly there is an element of the media which pander to these morons, and make them believe that what they are doing is part of a macho culture. I would suggest these elements of the media are behaving very irresponsibly, and there can be no doubt will cause some individuals with warped minds and delusions of manhood to illegally shoot wildlife, like this buzzard.
I agree , if used properly air weapons can be a useful tool for controlling rats, grey squirrels and other vermin which posses a threat to humans, livestock or other wildlife, but I suspect many air weapons are used illegally to target wildlife, and it really is time they were licensed in a similar manner to shotguns, and Sect 1 firearms, which hopefully would take possession away from those without any real legitimate excuse for possession.
1/ I do not know of any media that behaves responsibly.
2/ There is no such thing as ‘vermin’, unless you mean the human kind?
In Scotland you have to have a licenced to own a airgun.
Air rifle or firearm? It’s a fine line. I know the police will check the power or “ft.lb” of air weapons they seize when stopping cars or searching a house for drugs, etc, but how often do they spot check (or take away to test) air rifles in general circulation? I would bet about 25% of all legally held air rifles are at some point being used in a state that is over the 12ft.lb legal limit and are in fact during that time illegally held / unregistered firearms. Good luck to the buzzard btw, I wonder if it was an old one with a particularly hard head!
I would prefer, if air rifles have to be used that they were more powerful so as to cause the least amount of suffering to the animal in question killing them quickly.
To me low powered air rifles will always have to potential cause suffering by not killing outright.
Yes, there is definitely something in what you say – a low powered weapon in the hands of someone who doesn’t care is a recipe for malicious wounding. This is also where we are obliged to trust that the person holding the gun has an ethical and humane attitude to selecting their quarry / judging range to give likelihood of a clean kill. But my point was to highlight the fact that the regulatory system is asleep at the wheel, and that the law is widely abused. It is very easy to maintain (gas charged) air weapons oneself at power levels above the legal threshold where a firearms licence ought to be applied for in the same way as one needs to do for a .22 LR / rimfire (“proper” rifle). Not that it is rocket science to modify most spring powered air rifles either, and put them above 12.ft.lb as well.
I’m afraid it’s the same old story, it is the person not the tool. A car in an idiots hands is a lethal weapon. You cannot account for irresponible people by penalising law abiding people. There are still people out there who hate anything with a hooked beak, a lot being pigeon flyers and gamekeepers. They need educating.
In my time as a Countryside Ranger, we’d often come across local scumbags with air rifles on our various LNRs. And when patrolling “problem” reserves after dark, the “whang” of a pellet on the skin of our vehicle was often heard.
Day or night, our directives were to leave the site, and call the police. However, the accepted practice was simply to report the presence of an “armed” individual, rather than specifics, as we all knew from experience that our local force wouldn’t bother responding to reports of air weapons.
How can people be so cruel. No words for how upset I feel. Thank heavens the Buzzard will recover.