BB guns, catapults and stamping on pigeons: Wildlife cruelty is 2026’s hottest teen trend

Stephen Price

Before putting finger to key (bring back pen to paper) to write this unplanned op-ed in the early hours of Friday morning, I’d naturally checked all the usual offending apps on my phone while supposedly watching a series I’m actually quite into for once.

As much as I’d like to plop said phone into a river from a great height in order to check out of the modern era once and for all (or maybe not – I’m not one to litter but a boyo can dream), my smartphone is here to stay, and for better or worse, a quick check-in on social media can often reward me with leads for me to work into news items a little later.

One of this week’s drone-like doom scrolls led me to a Facebook post from an Ammanford resident whose post showed up in my feed despite us having no mutual friends.

In it, she pleaded: “PLEASE SHARE!!!

“If anyone witnessed 2 teenagers stomping a pigeon to death in Ammanford high street can you message me please. The more people that witnessed this and are outraged by it the better.

“Argos have footage of the teenagers and I’m currently speaking to rural crimes about the incident. I’m not going to rest until they have been held accountable for their disgusting actions.”

Only last month, Nation Cymru reported how RSPCA Cymru had launched an appeal for information after a pigeon was shot with an air gun in Milford Haven.

The injured pigeon was found on Charles Street on 21 April by a member of the public and was taken to All Pets Vet Care.

This incident followed a previous RSPCA appeal after several cats were also shot by an air gun in the Hakin area in March. Tragically, at least one cat died and three were injured.

My home town of Brynmawr has seen birds being killed for fun recently, as shared in a local Facebook group, and back in 2024 I shared the horrifying news that a beloved swan, known to me personally from regular walks near my sister’s home, was killed with a slingshot.

The swan, which had been discovered at Lakeside Retail Park, Brynmawr, on 29 October 2024 later died from her injuries

The swan was a popular sight at nearby Machine Pond in Brynmawr, off the town’s Warwick Road, where she had welcomed four cygnets earlier that year.

Facebook commenters described it as “sickening”, with one writing: “So sad if it’s the female. She’s got 4 babies. That’s a sad loss to the lake – I live by the lake and watch them everyday. Hope they catch them.”

Another shared: “Absolutely disgusting…. Poor Swan. Really hope whoever’s done this gets caught and dealt with! How can anyone hurt an innocent animal like this is beyond me.”

A witness at the scene told Nation.Cymru: “I’m so angry and heartbroken for this poor swan and her family. We’ve completely lost our relationship with animals and the natural world.

“That some kids would do this for fun I will never understand, but it also speaks to us as a society now. Shameful, absolutely shameful.”

Only two years prior, two swans were found dead at the same site near the Lakeside Retail Park, in harrowing scenes that were reported by the South Wales Argus.

But something is different this year.

News reports from across the UK continue to highlight a sickening and undeniable ‘trend’ in violence against animals, particularly birds, at a rate I’ve never seen before.

Anyone caught deliberately using an air gun to injure an animal can face up to five years in prison and/or an unlimited fine if found guilty under the Animal Welfare Act.

Deliberately injuring or killing wild birds is a criminal offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

In reality though, when it’s a ‘child’? Posting a picture of them online when caught in the act isn’t acceptable, naming them isn’t, punishing them isn’t, so what will make them stop? At the moment, I’d say sweet FA.

Every year the RSPCA receives almost 1,000 calls to investigate cases, and helps hundreds of animals that are the victims of air gun attacks.

Cats and wildlife are the animals most vulnerable to being shot simply because they are out in the open with no one to protect them. Unfortunately, air rifle attacks are not as rare as the charity would like. The injuries caused by such attacks can be horrific and often fatal.

RSPCA Inspector Keith Hogben said: “We want to see a world where every kind of animal is treated with compassion and respect, and deliberate and brutal acts of cruelty should be consigned to the past.

“We continue to call for tighter controls on air weapons. This, along with better education and explanation of the law when buying an air gun, and requirements that everyone must receive basic safety training before being allowed to walk out of the shop, could help relieve the problem.”

‘It might be a child next!’

Until I’m able to check out of social media completely, and if my conscience allows me to ‘dance in the embers’ while the world seemingly goes down the pan, I’m inclined to keep ‘using my voice’ as pointless as it sometimes seems.

Inclined too, to roll my eyes as I read commenters share their rage and disgust, call them ‘absolute scum bags’ before moving on to the next post about Andy Burnham, Kim Kardashian, candy crush, Love Island, a funny meme or whatever it might be.

Others shout out that ‘animal cruelty is where serial killers start’, as if it’s not abhorrent enough that it’s happening to a defenceless animal, scraping an existence together and hunting for food for their young.

The news is drowned out in social media sludge, and most enraged people will head to the kitchen to chow upon a bird that was gassed to death or had their throat slit. Perhaps there’s a correlation? A hypocrisy? No?

To gain pleasure in the death of a living, loving, feeling being – and for it to keep happening again and again and again – is a canary in the mine for the mental state of so many young people (mainly boys and young men, let’s not pretend it’s anything other save for some potential exceptions to the rule).

How are we so disconnected? How are we so unfeeling that we award an animal’s life so little value that they can be brutalised for a spot of fun or momentary pleasure?

We need much stronger punishment for animal cruelty for adult and child. At present the repercussions are laughable.

We need to reconnect with both wild and farmed animals, not to mention our beautiful, vulnerable land, and parents and schools have a huge part to play in this.

We also need to stop viewing animals as mere products there for our use and entertainment.

As Orwell cleverly wrote in Animal Farm’s amended 7 commandments, “No animal shall kill any other animal… without cause.”

There is no cause, and never will be. Our allowed and accepted exceptions highlight a grey area these ‘youths’ are exposing.

Their actions, perhaps, a mirror turned back towards a profoundly sick and shameless society.

For more information about how to report an incident of animal cruelty, visit the RSPCA website.

Footnote

Walking back from a long stretch with the hounds on Friday evening, with this piece complete and ready to fly on Saturday morning, I reached for my phone and, again, mindlessly hit the Instagram and Facebook icons to see what’s going on and how many reels sent by friends I might have to pretend to have watched.

The first thing to greet me on Facebook, however, wasn’t an update from anyone I know, but a post on Crickhowell notice board – screenshotted below without comment and, sadly, without surprise.

The comments mention similar recent incidents, and others from last year too, and yet the ‘lads’ remain unpunished, proud and ready to do it again tomorrow.

And if not them, someone else, somewhere else, that much is guaranteed.

But man, proud man,
Dress’d in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d—
His glassy essence—like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep