Police hunt park thugs after cygnets shot dead

Aug 8 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

POLICE are hunting a gang of men who slaughtered up to seven cygnets in a south Liverpool park.

Officers were investigating reports the cygnets were blasted with a BB gun in Princes Park and their bodies left for foxes to eat. Sue Shaw, who lives nearby, regularly went to see the swans on the lake and was distraught when she heard what had happened.

Miss Shaw said: “It is only a few years ago that the swans came back to Princes Park and when they came back HERE this year they had seven cygnets.

“They were so beautiful I went down to see them every day, but on Thursday they were nowhere to be found.

“Then I discovered a group of men, not boys or teenagers but grown men, had been seen shooting at the swans and cygnets with a ball bearing gun.

“It is just disgusting. What type of perverse pleasure could you get from killing or hurting such beautiful little animals?”

It is illegal to injure or kill swans in Britain and the offence carries a £5,000 fine or six months in jail.

Insp Ian Black of Merseyside police said: “We will do everything we can to bring these people to justice.”