Catapult attacks question - "children"? Or is it really "boys"?

[GardenCherisher]

Today a lot of news media outlets have been covering a story about "children" or "youths" or "youngsters" deliberately killing and injuring wildlife with catapults.

Does anyone know whether this is genuinely "children" - or just "boys"?

Because let's face it, it's certainly not a line of of antisocial behaviour girls normally go in for. Theft, low level bullying, fraud...yes.

Links to "a lot of news media outlets"?

A report from Sky initially, which has been picked up by other news outlets
https://news.sky.com/story/children-using-catapults-to-kill-and-torture-animals-before-sharing-sick-images-on-whatsapp-13089025

https://metro.co.uk/2024/03/13/children-using-catapults-torture-animals-share-photos-whatsapp-20454802/

OP from what I've seen elsewhere the children filming themselves doing this have all been boys. Not that this means much. But males do account for nearly two thirds of convictions under the Animal Welfare Act so there may well be a split according to sex when it comes to this animal cruelty.

I can imagine there will be some girls involved? Plenty of women in the USA hunt animals.

People don't always conform to the norms of their sex. This doesn't make them any less of that sex.

I don't believe behaving in a certain way is limited to one sex or the other.
More likely - sure.
A greater risk of that behaviour in one sex - sure.
Policies should take any significantly higher risk into account where appropriate - definitely.

However, having a one-to-one correlation between sex and behaviour - no.

I agree it might be interesting to know if it's one sex or the other or both.

I read down the article as far as I dared!

@GardenCherisher I know exactly what you are getting at and I would bet my house that this is being done mostly by boys - I'd even say overwhelmingly by boys - but until we get figures, we can't be sure. I assume your point is that by saying "children" the propensity of males towards violence is once again being skated over. They are youngsters, a small minority of boys (God, I hope so!) so nobody wants to point the finger but we won't solve the problem of male violence if we obfuscate and we already know that sex is a strong indicator - so that is where resources need to directed. This kind of behaviour has to be nipped in the bud. It can be a first step towards similar cruelty to human beings. Psychopaths start with animals.

Seems to be the UK - and this isn't hunting, this is sadism for likes.

I saw some little shits waving serious looking catapults around up at trees last week. Almost certainly boys. Been meaning to report it actually.

If these weapons are powerful enough to kill a deer or a fox, they can certainly injure a human. It's very worrying, lots of killers start on animals.

More often boys, I'd imagine, but I would not be surprised to find a girl doing something like this as well, it's not unheard of.

I don't really think it's wrong to report it as children unless it's clearly actually all boys, and I don't imagine they know that.

I think it will be both girls and boys

Fair enough, I've seen traveller boys shoot squirrels with catapults, then cook and eat them, so assumed this was along the same lines.

I still think there are likely to be a very small number of girls involved but yes I understand that ignoring the fact that there's a much higher propensity of boys to be involved in these kinds of behaviours is harmful.

It's important to examine why this happens alongside the fact it does though.

To me, the problem seems to be a culture of not holding boys account for their behaviour, for not promoting nurturing and caring behaviour amongst boys, as well as allowing children in general unrestricted access to the internet.

I suspect it’s been reported as “children” because some accounts have the sense to completely conceal their identities right down to their sex while committing their violent crimes for which I sincerely hope they are all caught & punished.

There is a small lake near my house. There are quite a few different fowl(s?) on it and we've had a spate of catapult attacks there recently.
Police and wardens are involved now but all of the attacks have been made by young boys .. late primary/early secondary age.

Heartbreaking and really boils my piss. ( sorry, not a great phrase .)

We need interventions now. I have a vague recollection about a school project involving bringing in a "baby" over a few days and the kids had to guess what it wanted from non-language clues. Empathy scores increased massively. And we need to find activities for children, especially boys, that allow them to give rein to the hunting instinct but without hurting sentient beings. Do we still have youth clubs?

"Youths" is boys isn't it? You would t call a gang of girls "youths".

It is well documented historically that people who go on to murder and other horrendous crimes, started off by injuring animals. I unfortunately had to listen to a grim lecture about it decades ago.

Probably boys but everyone is so shit scared of causing offence these days that they don't tell it how it is

We had a spate round where we lived when kids aged 8-10 were caught using a catapults to shoot at ducks near Dawsons Pond...was reported to the police whe caught them and it was both girls and boys doing it....a friend of mines son was involved

The behaviour of girls seems to becoming more violent. Plenty of videos of girls attacking other girls on the way home from school etc

They can't say "boys" because it would only take one report of one girl with a catapult to have everyone screeching, "No! The girls are MUCH MUCH WORSE than the boys!" But it would be good to see accurate statistics about sex distribution.

Well said!

Of course it's boys. Not that women and girls aren't capable of mindless violence against animals in the name of fun - you just need to go to a shoot or fox hunt (back when it was still legal) or bullfight to see that plenty of women enjoy it from a young age too.

It has been a serious problem where I live. All boys, all aged 9-14.
They have been confronted and stopped and attacked adults trying to stop them. It's caused a lot of fears.

Sadly this seems to be a massive problem of children out of control with parents with kid gloves of dealing with the problem....i believe strict discipline is needed for this problem and after a initial talk about it with the child any further incidents its obvious a talk wont stop this...toys away and isolated to the house is only glossing over the real situation...i know its not PC now but i feel this problem can only be overcome with psychical discipline which gives the child a reminder of what will happen next time and each time afterwards
I thankfully have never had this kind of problem with mine but my view is how i would sort out this problem