Labour MP Jim Dickson said ‘deeply unpleasant’ footage is being shared on social media of animals being hurt using catapults
Ministers have been urged to tackle a vile TikTok trend that sees animals killed and seriously injured by catapults.
Labour MP Jim Dickson said he had been made aware of “deeply unpleasant” footage being shared on social media. The MP for Dartford questioned whether catapults should be banned to prevent it happening.
He said sick clips have been posted by younger people who are often encouraged by “older men”. Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said she was aware of similar cases and said the Government is looking at ways to combat it. Mr Dickson told the Commons: “Near my constituency there’s been a troubling spate of recent incidents where younger people, sometimes encouraged by older men, are filming themselves catapulting wildlife.
“They’re doing damage to that wildlife and then placing the footage on TikTok. The footage is deeply unpleasant, I don’t recommend anyone looks at it.”
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He went on to ask the Labour frontbencher: “Would my honourable friend the minister agree that behaviour goes well beyond anti-social behaviour and may perhaps at some point require a ban on catapults?”
Dame Diana said the Home Office and colleagues from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are looking at ways of tackling it.
She said: “Sadly that’s not the first time I’ve heard about this appalling behaviour, attacking and injuring animals using catapults. I’m certainly raising that with my counterparts in Defra to see what we can do.
“This is certainly something we need to look at.”
Animal charity the RSPCA has warned the trend is “unspeakably cruel”. National wildlife coordinator Geoff Edmond said previously: “Day after day, our frontline officers and animal centres see the sickening consequences of weapons being used on animals – severe injuries often leading to death. And what we deal with is probably only the tip of the iceberg as not all cases will be reported to the RSPCA directly and there may be situations where animals injured and killed by these weapons are sadly never found – especially in the case of wildlife.”
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