Is it illegal to kill a wild animal at work?

[SilverDoe]

Posting for traffic. Is illegal/possible to pursue for animal cruelty if someone kills a wild animal in their work place?

I have been googling but I can only find information really regarding livestock and pets.

Also magpies here in Australia are freaking lunatics that swoop you and attack cars. They're bloody mental!

Apart from also being black and white, they are a different bird altogether.

Magpies can swoop and dive bomb people if they become habituated to humans. If this was happening and he got a pest control company to cull it or shot it himself (I can't see how he could legally do this near a shop tbh) then it is legal, if he trapped it in some way or poisoned it is illegal. If you want to you can report him to the RSPB.
Magpies are sometimes dangerous thou (as are crows, squirrels and many other creatures that normally pose no threat).

It is legal to kill magpies in England, and also legal to shoot them. I seriously doubt there would be any workplace specification against it and if the manager's job includes managing the school site then controlling the bird population is potentially a legitimate part of his job.

I really doubt there are any grounds for action. Let it go. Wild birds do die, and magpies pester a lot of species.

@QuestionsorComments

You are allowed to "control" magpies as they can be a pest but you need a licence.

See this is the thing. He is a guy working in a shop so I sincerely doubt he has any licence/professional capacity to do something like that, so I can only imagined it was killed in quite a violent way, like being stomped on or something :(

I'm so so gutted, it was a really sweet and intelligent little thing. And the kids all saw him regularly too.

Just had a little google and it’s generally illegal to kill magpies. It’s only legal if it’s for control reasons (the magpies dangerous or a nuisance) and no lethal solutions must be considered first. The problem is that there’s no one really to report to that will be interested in doing anything about it. I’ve just read a forum where someone has complained to the police and rspca about someone trapping and killing magpies in their garden and nothings being done about it. If the bird is still alive and the community is aware of it and fond of it, then I’d consider a bit of a social media campaign asking people to help protect it as someone is planning on killing it

Australian magpies make me laugh. I love watching the videos on YouTube about them. Especially that woman who decides to try eyes on the back of her helmet and is then screaming because she’s being dive bombed

makes me laugh everytime

Magpies count as pests legally so you are allowed to kill them but you have to apply for a license to do so.

And no he has nothing to do with the school site. It is a local community centre type thing with various shops etc and then the school just across the road. Parents and children frequently use the shop due to proximity.

I know I probably have no remit here. I am just horrified by the cruelty of it all. It was so unnecessary.

Oh also lady shouting at manager was from the school so definitely nothing to do with the school

You mention the vet or wildlife hospital. Was it injured, and he was putting it out of its misery, or did he just randomly kill it? Think it's quite different depending on circumstances.

It's quite complicated, but the law changed relatively recently on this. There are circumstances in which you can kill magpies - but this would not be one of them. As of 1 January this year, you can only kill magpies as pest control if they're posing a direct threat to livestock. You can't kill one just because it hopped on to your property.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/wild-birds-licence-to-kill-or-take-to-prevent-serious-damage-gl42/gl42-general-licence-to-kill-or-take-certain-species-of-wild-birds-to-prevent-serious-damage

@etulosba

Also magpies here in Australia are freaking lunatics that swoop you and attack cars. They're bloody mental!

Apart from also being black and white, they are a different bird altogether.

I totally knew that. I haven't been thinking for an embarrassing amount of years that they're just vicious Aussie versions. Definitely not.

I used to work in a Co op and unsurprisingly there were no rules specifically about whether you could kill birds or not. Usually an employment contract will have something about not bringing employer into disrepute.

It's legal to kill magpies. It wasn't that long ago that some councils paid you to do so. They are vermin and kill other birds and are responsible for declines in numbers of many bird species

Sorry, without method I think it would be very hard to prosecute

@SilverDoe

No it was not injured or suffering in any way. It was friendly, it would approach people and do stuff like pull their shoe laces which I've read is a sign of play.

I know it sounds crazy and over the top but I'm so horrified that instead of just calling the RSPCA, or taking it to the pretty local wild animal hospital, or even just shooing the bloody thing outside, he chose to kill it :(

It was also just one single magpie, it's not like it was a pest/infestation issue or anything.

I do not have details on how he killed the magpie.

ring the RSPB. I've used them before when I saw neighbour about to trim a hedge with a nesting blackbird in it

I’d make a complaint to his workplace as a first point of call. If they are a decent company they will investigate. Is it a big company? It does sound extreme to kill an animal but we don’t have the details of the circumstances.

What is the chain of shops? Are we talking national, well known chain? If so, I would be taking to social media about this!!!

I'd let everyone at the school know... If they all stop using the shop it might be some sort of revenge!

You mention that this was near a school, but unless he killed the bird in front of the kids, I don't think the school proximity is relevant.

Was the magpie stealing all the shiny sweets?

Do you know if it was hurt in any way? If a cat had got it, for instance? I have had to finish off birds occasionally that the cat has brought in (pigeons etc) but some die as you pick them up, without much in the way of visible wounds, so either there are internal injuries I can't see, or else they're dying of fright. Did the guy definitely cause its death or did he just put it out of its misery?

So you basically have no details whatsoever of what happened. Just a bit of overhead conversation and you have emailed his employer? I think that's awful tbh. Maybe try and at least get some of the facts before you try and get someone sacked!

I would contact the RSPB and the local press. Don’t tie yourself up in knots about the work issue. It’s animal cruelty, pure and simple.

I would probably also lead a campaign to boycott his shop as well but I am vindictive like that…

How do you know it wasn't injured? You don't know the circumstances around what happened, from what youve said you just know that this guy killed a magpie.
It could have flown into the shop window and been injured just before he killed it.