PETA Offers Gbp1,000 To Help Nab Bird Killers

For Immediate Release:
10 July 2009

Contact:
Sam Glover 020 7357 9229, ext 229; [email protected]

Wiltshire – In what is believed to have been a horrific act of cruelty, 16 rare birds were beaten and decapitated at East Harnham Farm near Salisbury on 26 June. The birds included red-breasted geese, black swans, chickens and ducks.

PETA is offering a reward of up to £1,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for this horrific crime.

Wiltshire residents have good reason to be concerned about cruelty-to-animals cases such as this. History shows that serial rapists and murderers often have backgrounds which include incidents involving cruelty to animals. Child-killers Mary Bell, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables as well as serial murderers Ian Huntley, Thomas Hamilton (Dunblane massacre), Fred West, Denis Nilsen, Ian Brady and Jeffrey Dahmer all started out by deliberately harming animals.

PETA is urging residents to keep a watchful eye on their animals and to keep them indoors. Because animals cannot report their own abuse and can do little to fight back, they are the perfect “practice” victims for those who tend towards violence.

“Animal abusers are cowards”, says PETA spokesperson Suzanne Barnard. “They take their issues out on the most defenceless beings available to them.”

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to call the Wiltshire Police on 0845 408 7000.

For more information about the link between cruelty to animals and violence towards humans (or to find free humane education resources), please visit PETAF.org.uk.