"Even people are being shot"

Chris Smith is called out five or six times a week to rescue geese, ducks and swans who have been shot with catapults or slingshots in South East London. Back in 2020, he would see these attacks happen five or six times a year.

Chris is a wildlife rescuer from Greenwich Wildlife Network (GWN). Because of how horrific some of the injuries his team has to deal with are, he says “we much rather the animal be shot outright than suffer”. Recently he discovered a Canada Goose had been shot in the lower jaw and died the following day. “Probably one of the worst injuries I've seen,” he says, “all the tissue underneath the jaw was all hanging out."

This is a growing trend, where teenagers, or sometimes adults use catapults to shoot wildlife, using ball bearings, stones or even ice cubes as ammunition. Videos of these attacks are shared on TikTok. “Once it's on TikTok, everyone wants to be better than everyone. That’s why they're now doing it in front of people,” Chris believes.

Chris has used the platform to gather evidence on a “prolific shooter” that he has brought to the police.

“One video on TikTok led me down the track of finding out the suspect, where the suspect lives, what school they attended, their multiple accounts.

“They have shot dead a minimum of 31 animals in the space of three months," Chris says. He has since handed evidence over to police and the case is ongoing.

Catapult and ball bearings. Photo: Jim Clark

Catapult and ball bearings. Photo: Jim Clark

“It’s not just wildlife, they are now turning to domestic animals, farm animals, even people have been shot at and threatened,” Chris says.

In fact, GWN’s ‘catapult log’ covering 2025 and 2026, shows three separate instances where the organisation has reported attacks on people to the police.

One incident in Farningham, Kent in February 2025 saw a man lose five teeth after a catapult attack.

“If a catapult and slingshot can fire at 140mph, that is the same speed as a shotgun. But they're still, in the UK, classified as toys.”

Chris Smith, Greenwich Wildlife Network

Despite hotspots in the South East of England, Chris says this is a national issue, which led to wildlife organisations across the country coming together to campaign against this cruelty, forming Target Crime Not Wildlife in November last year.

The campaign calls for stronger legislation, including age limits on the purchase of catapults, and a reduction in the amount of footage on TikTok, YouTube, and other social media platforms where videos are widely shared.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

Ruth Jones MP (right) at the catapult cruelty Parliamentary event on 3 March. Photo: Naturewatch Foundation

Ruth Jones MP (right) at the catapult cruelty Parliamentary event on 3 March. Photo: Naturewatch Foundation

The campaign has grown and after an event at the Houses of Parliament at the beginning of March this year, Ruth Jones MP submitted an Early Day Motion to the House of Commons, to debate the use of catapults to target wildlife.

Jim Dixon MP has also joined campaigning efforts. According to the BBC, he met with officials from TikTok in April, and called on the Home Office to classify catapults as offensive weapons so police can confiscate them.

County breakdown of weapon attack incidents reported to the RSPCA in 2022, 2023 and 2024

“Ultimately, it’s trying to stop young people entering into the criminal justice system,” says Jim Clark, who is leading the campaign from Cheltenham-based animal welfare charity Naturewatch Foundation.

“If people enter the criminal justice system unnecessarily, this has knock-on effects on their future aspirations,” he says. “Those that commit violence against animals, most of the time go on to commit violence against human beings.”

Jim explains that the law around catapults is “woolly”, leading to inconsistencies in how police deal with incidents. He suspects that in most cases, officers might issue an antisocial behaviour order, confiscate catapults, or simply give young people “a bit of a telling off”.

Unlike air rifles and knives, which are classified as ‘offensive weapons’ with age restrictions on purchases, Jim says that “at the moment, anyone can buy a catapult and use it anywhere, as long as they haven’t committed other offences”.

He says it’s only when a projectile is used to commit criminal damage or target wildlife, that a person is committing a criminal offence.

“Whilst we don’t want to criminalise every young child, there’s no real threat,” says Jim. “If there was a real deterrent, I think it would have a real impact. Because there's no real deterrent and there's no level playing field across the country for these things, people just do it because they can get away with it.”

This is why the campaign calls for stronger legislation, giving police forces clearer guidance.

Before joining Naturewatch, Jim was a police officer for 20 years. “I have seen both sides of the coin,” he says. “If we could solve issues and sort out wildlife crime at the very bottom, society would be massively different.

“If we can change people’s opinions and perspectives on looking after wildlife, that will manifest itself as they get older, to human beings as well.”

“I’m 100% confident that if we could deal with these matters early, we would change society.”

Jim Clark, Wildlife Crime Campaign Manager, Naturewatch Foundation

Naturewatch, Greenwich Wildlife Network gathered to campaign at Parliament in March 2026. Photo: Jim Clark

Naturewatch is also calling for responsible retail, because currently anyone can buy catapults and ammunition, regardless of age. On 2 March, after meeting with Jim, Gumtree banned the sale of catapults, including through sponsored links which led to other webpages.

Andy Harper, CEO of Gumtree said: “Animal cruelty has no place in society, and we are committed to ensuring our platform is not used to facilitate the sale of items that could contribute to such harm.”

Despite more than eight months of communicating with Amazon, Jim has not received a concrete answer. They have taken down listings of whole catapults, but still list the components: frames, elastic bands and ball bearings.

Catapult components for sale on Amazon

Catapult components for sale on Amazon

Jim has a few ideas why this behaviour is drawing teenagers in. He suggests that it's mostly the appeal of validating themselves on social media, through likes and engagement from like-minded people. But he believes it could also be because of a deeper disconnect with nature.

“Maybe it's people lacking in confidence, but it comes down to parenting as well,” he says. “I was brought up well and taught to respect wildlife, but I'm sure that those that don't have that exposure and freedom to interact with other living things, they don't get to respect them.”

“Maybe children in city or suburban areas don't know about wildlife or don't have that interaction or exposure. Maybe wildlife to them is a throwaway inconvenience.”