FOI 226073

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 226073

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 30^th January 2023.  Please find below the response to your request:

1) In the calendar years a) 2018, b) 2019, c) 2020, d) 2021 and e) 2022, please tell me how many times your police force recorded the crime categorised by the Home Office counting rules as 97/01 "causing, permitting or failing to prevent unnecessary suffering of protected animal" where the protected animal in question was a) a swan, b) a goose or c) a duck. Please provide a breakdown of the total by year and by type of bird.

2) For the 15 most recently recorded crimes captured by question 1's search, please provide me with a verbatim copy of the “investigation summary field” and/or the modus operandi (MO). In addition, please state where each of the 15 crimes occurred.

Reply

• In the calendar years a) 2018, b) 2019, c) 2020, d) 2021 and e) 2022, please tell me how many times your police force recorded the crime categorised by the Home Office counting rules as 97/01 "causing, permitting or failing to prevent unnecessary suffering of protected animal" where the protected animal in question was a) a swan, b) a goose or c) a duck. Please provide a breakdown of the total by year and by type of bird.

1 record in 2022, unfortunately the type of bird was not recorded.

      2) For the 15 most recently recorded crimes captured by question 1's search, please provide me with a verbatim copy of the “investigation summary field” and/or the modus operandi (MO). In addition, please state       where each of the 15 crimes occurred.

a group of individuals along the riverside in Evesham killing various birds through using catapults and small metal nuts to shoot at birds in trees, witnesses also state the birds were also being killed by pulling their necks, the youths then proceeded to dispose of the birds by throwing them in the river.