Bloody catapults! Who is buying these for their kids? **ANIMAL CRUELTY**

[MeatRaffleRita]

Why on earth would anyone buy their kids one of these? Last year my MIL window was put through - a small hole - had no idea what it was until recently when loads of ducks and swans are being attacked in our park. Dozens killed and maimed. It's totally disgusting.
Jeez parents - surely you know these are actual weapons?

YABU - it's just Dennis the Menace kids fun innit
YANBU - it's only a matter of time before kids start losing eyes

[Title edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

Just googled it and it's loads worse than I thought. Whose kids are these bloody morons?
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/catapult-attacks-on-animals-a-new-kind-of-pandemic-but-i-325749/

How strong are these catapults that they can cause that much damage!

They are being shot with steel ball bearings.
Absolute fucking cunts doing this.

Very, and they are easy to buy online

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AUVIM-Slingshot-Professional-Hunting-Catapult/dp/B09WCZVV58/

Really strong. They used a pebble to go through my MIL's window.

If it had hit her it would have cracked her skull for sure

Yes, we have in our area too, ducks and swans have been killed, awful behaviour. We also had an incident were a child was hit, luckily not hard, but could have done a lot of damage.

That picture of the poor duck has brought me to tears.

Sorry - yes it's really graphic and way too close up. I'll put a warning on the OP.

I'm livid that nothing is being done about this

Cretins are buying them. There’s a lot of them about.

It's seems to be happening everywhere.

Why isn't anything being done??

We'll have no ducks left in the country at the rate their being killed by little shits. These are people's kids. The parents should be prosecuted.

I was reading something about this recently, also in Kent (Herne Bay) for some reason. I find it so sad. Surely most of these kids must have enjoyed feeding the ducks as children - how can they now want to hurt them? Ducks are so friendly and endearing (I think it's horrific when any animal is hurt for fun, by the way, but I have a soft spot for ducks).

I hope that catapults will be banned, but I suspect that social media is behind much of this. I think many children are desensitised to violence because of what they've seen on line, and I also imagine that kids who post videos of this in, for example, the Facebook catapult club referenced in your article, probably get a lot of attention and likes.

So, will the people who voted kids killing animals with catapults is reasonable be brave enough to explain their reasoning?

Or are you all just a duck killing cowards?

These animals are totally harmless. It's barbaric and cowardly.

No, its fine. My reaction is mine. Hopefully it will make people realise what's happening with this weapons.

The argument against banning them seems to be that fishermen need to use them to fire bait into the water, but can't they just use a little scoop to launch it?

@Samas , they are strong enough to kill. When our house was being built some little darlings shot one at our just installed patio doors and shattered them. The police of course didn’t even bother to come out.

You don’t live in Bromley do you? This is happening constantly around here, some woman had two of her car windows put through the other day and a cat had its eye severely damaged. Parents just don’t parent anymore.

Not Bromley @frecklejuice, but in the South East.

It seems really rife in Kent - what the hell is going on with Kent kids?
The article has so many reports from Kent.

Oh, just realised it's KentOnline so it would do.

But is it bad anywhere else or is the South East the only place it's happening?

Yanbu! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cddy29gd60vo

• this happened near me and I know the little one who was actually cut by the breaking glass.

Sadly, we're getting almost daily reports from
our lovely 'swan' bloke rescuing swans & others from these fucking thugs. Some die, many he nurses back to health & releases back to their families, some gave to live at the sanctuary.

the photos are very upsetting, but the actual cruelty us more upsetting.

the parents of these fucking idiots should have to do time along with their children.

police are starting to get involved, but not enough!

I'm in SE, but not Kent. Hampshire/Berkshire.

As a child DB & I used to spend ages making catapults from elastic bands and small branches. We used them to ping rubbers and lego bricks at targets. Often we snapped the elastic band on our own fingers, that was the only injury or ddamage. I wouldn't have dared aiming at a person or building or vehicle, nor thought of aiming at an animal.

The kind of appalling begaviourbin OP is staggering. At 12 they should have outgrown playing with catapults, before 12 parents should be way more involved in what their kids have access to and what they're doing.