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.

Are you vegan, SilverDoe?

What's that got to do with the subject of this thread @Pluvia

I would just make sure everyone locally knows what he did, there's no legal recourse but a reduction in shop trade as a result will not be popular with his employers.

If someone does something like that, the only real recourse is as many people as possible knowing what a c**t they are.

I actually think perhaps you are overreacting without necessarily knowing all the facts. So if I understand it correctly you saw a woman shouting at the manager for killing the magpie but you don't even know if she was right, or if there was any reason behind it other than speculation.

You could have really got the wrong end of the stick. Worth finding out before you tell everyone or make any big decisions.

My partner took our DC to school this morning and a lady from the school was shouting at the manager. He obviously heard and it has transpired that he has taken it upon himself to kill this poor creature

What exactly did your partner hear said?

We don't "know" anything except that someone overheard part of an argument

@SilverDoe

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.

How do you know it was cruel when you don’t know how it was killed?

I'd struggle to get this upset about one magpie. There's much more animal cruelty going into what's on the shelves in the shop than one twat kicking a Magpie. At least Maggie got to hop about and bit and have some freedom and mental stimulation he was 'dispatched'.

Sorry OP, I do think if he killed it maliciously or just for fun that that is very cruel and you have every right to complain.

However I don't understand how you know that:
a) the bird hadn't been injured earlier that day (ie attacked by a cat, flown into a window, gotten trapped, ran over etc) and hopped into the shop clearly injured
b) he killed the bird in the shop or on the work premises
c) the bird wasn't causing damage to the shop or the products...if it was pecking into the bread bags or flying off with shiny wrapped sweets etc on a regular basis and therefore was being a nuisance.

Exactly how much did your husband overhear? Did he talk to the shouting woman or shopkeeper after the argument?

@Skyellaskerry

Are you vegan, SilverDoe?

What's that got to do with the subject of this thread @Pluvia

I'm just wondering whether someone who's making such a huge fuss about a predatory, verminous bird happily eats chicken or other animals who've been bred to go through the awful process of abattoirs. It seems perfectly relevant to me.

I live in the countryside and keep animals. I garden for birds and wildlife. I have hedgehogs, foxes and badgers through my garden. I love animals but I'm not sentimental about the fact that animal life is often short, bloody and inhumane. I've been in the garden when a sparrow hawk has swooped on a pigeon and torn it apart just yards away. That wasn't humane!

Sick of sentimental townies thinking that magpies are cute. They're not and I assure you they don't all die quick, painless stress-free deaths in the wild.

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

I would be joining Twitter and Facebook and telling everyone what he’d done.

What a despicable excuse for a man.

And what a bastard awful thing to do.

FFS! Whenever I hear people whining about the evils of social media, it makes me wonder why they never consider this sort of witless shitstirring as a genuinely troublesome aspect of it.

@DropYourSword

"How do you know the bird wasn't injured? I don't get it." Because we've seen him all week, he's a well known feature of the local shops.

This makes no sense. You genuinely don't know whether the bird had been injured. Doesn't make a difference if you've seen him all week if he got attacked by a cat this morning!

Okay, I concede, I don't know 100% that the bird was not injured. However, I find it far more likely that given the bird was hopping in and out of his shop, and given the fact that the manager did not clarify otherwise that it was actually a mercy killing, I find it pretty safe to assume that it was done because he was pissed off the bird was in his shop.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

There is also an Avian Flu epidemic at the moment too isn't there?

Yes there is, it’s a pretty big outbreak, think there’s been one case of bird to human transfer? Sad but if I was the shop manager I’d want to absolutely minimise the risk of surfaces getting contaminated.

@Pluvia please get over yourself. I may be a "townie" but I've grown up around nature, had pets all of my life.

I am vegetarian going vegan and all of my pets are vegan (guinea pigs, hamsters). I would love a cat but refuse to buy meat based pet food so cats are off limits to me.

Does this make me worthy of being upset at a case of animal cruelty? Or is that only reserved for people of utmost moral superiority?

A shop would be expected to take action against pests, rats, magpies or otherwise.

With no licence it is against the law and you gave every right to report him to police. How they prove it I don’t know but it may make him think twice about doing it again should another bird become over familiar. Killing any wild bird is against the law. Certain pest species still need to be killed by someone with a licence, at certain times of the year and in a certain way.

With cases of bird flu being high in this country at the moment it would not be considered safe for a Magpie to be going into a shop. Even without birdflu it certainly isn't hygienic.

Magpies are generally pretty feisty so if this person has managed to get their hands on it to kill I would suspect something was wrong with the bird, be it injury or illness. Just because you have seen it in the days before does not mean that it was healthy. Birds are generally pretty hardy and won't show signs of illness until they're very ill.

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.

Awww 😢

And @Pluvia human cruelty to innocent animals is literally a world apart from animals surviving and existing as part of an ecosystem/food chain in the wild.

If you don't know how it was killed then you can't be 'horrified by the cruelty'.

@SilverDoe Also, hamsters are actually omnivores not herbivores so you aren't giving your hamsters the best diet if they are on a solely vegan diet.

I thought we were supposed to discourage wild animals from being too friendly around humans?

You need a licence to control even pest species OF BIRD. Rats are a different matter. He has broken the law, so he should be reported to the police. It's an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. As is clearing occupied gull nests from roofs or hosing house martin nests off houses.

I don't know what the police would do, but worth reporting it as a wildlife crime and let them deal with it. Here's RSPB info: www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/magpie/legal-magpie-control-methods/

I'd also email the Coop head office and express concern, and ask what company policy is and whether they sanctioned this action.

@Pluvia I'm no townie, just like you I live in the countryside, garden for wildlife and have a similar array of wild birds and animals I know are around and have also witnessed what sparrowhawks do because they are birds of prey and all that. I still your question is a different subject to the topic of the thread though.

[quote IMONTHETOILET]@SilverDoe Also, hamsters are actually omnivores not herbivores so you aren't giving your hamsters the best diet if they are on a solely vegan diet.[/quote]
They do just fine, millions of hamsters are fed vegan diets as the average hamster food is vegan.

They are granivores. Just because they can eat meat does not make it biologically necessary.