Warning: This article contains distressing images.
Kids are recording themselves using slingshots to harm and kill animals across the UK WhatsApp chat.
Around 500 members in 11 group chats, including primary school children, school have shared videos of their kills.
The wounded animals are seen slowly dying as they are targeted with the slingshots, while others are kicked to death.
Over 350 pictures and videos have been posted in the group, leading to a call for slingshots to be classified as an illegal weapon.
The RSPCA has called the chat content ‘horrendous’ and stated it's a growing trend.
Animals targeted include pigs, deer, pigeons, foxes, squirrels, pheasants, rabbits, geese, and ducks.
In one video, a deer is seen struggling on the ground with a head injury.
The child who attacked the animal then stands over it while displaying their handheld slingshot.
They then kick the deer, causing it to wriggle in visible distress.
Another video shows two teenagers shooting a fox, with one heard saying: ‘Okay boys… steel shot in the head.’
Another teenager films a Canada goose drowning, having shot it from across the pond.
A primary school-aged child also films himself picking up a heavily bleeding squirrel, saying: ‘Look at that boys, it’s a ball bearing for ya… have that you prick.’
X-rays reveal shattered bones and ball bearings lodged inside swans.
The Swan Sanctuary has treated 20 birds with slingshot injuries.
Volunteer Danni Rogers told Sky News they are seeing ‘devastating’ wounds to the birds’ heads and necks.
He added he had seen ‘fractures to facial areas, eyes exploding and windpipes bursting’.
Mr Rogers was called to rescue a swan with slingshot injuries when he was made aware the kids were still in the area.
He later found a freshly killed pigeon next to his vehicle left as a ‘trophy’.
Geoff Edmond, the RSPCA’s main wildlife officer, said young people are ‘intentionally and deliberately targeting animals for sport’.
‘We’re receiving more reports of injured animals being hit by slingshots,’ he said.
He added police in London and Essex are aware of the growing number of incidents.
MP Henry Smith, the vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, says legislators need to consider changing laws around slingshots.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 specifies weapons that are prohibited for killing animals, but it does not include catapults.
Mr Smith stated that until a few individuals are found guilty of using catapults to cause severe suffering to animals, and they face legal consequences, there will be no deterrent to prevent others from participating in this cruel activity.
WhatsApp stated that the content being shared violated its terms of use.
They mentioned: 'We comply with law enforcement requests in accordance with relevant laws and policies.'
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