Outrage at Feilding teens' bird slaughter

The SPCA is outraged after three Feilding teenagers slaughtered aviary birds and recorded their exploits on a cellphone camera.

Police were called to Feilding's Kowhai Park Aviary about 7.20pm on Tuesday after shots were heard.

A caged sulphur-crested cockatoo, a wood pigeon and a muscovy duck were found shot in the head and body with a .177 slug pistol. A quail in a separate enclosure had died of shock.

Three teenagers, aged between 14 and 15, fled but a police dog tracked and caught one of them. A second teenager handed himself in and police were searching for the third.

Some of the shootings had been recorded on a cellphone camera, which police confiscated.

Feilding SPCA centre manager Jo Finlayson wanted the boys charged, saying: "It's not just that they killed trapped animals but they did so deliberately so they can put it on YouTube ... It's sick."

Manawatu District Council's parks and reserves manager, Albert James, said there had never been any attack like it in the aviary's 30 year history.

"It's not hunting, it's not sport, it's a deliberate, wanton act," he said. "It's such a great delight for people to go to the park to see the birds and there's a real relationship between them. Then these idiots come along and destroy it without any conscience at all."

Sergeant Terry Gibbons said police had interviewed two of the boys but, because they fell under youth justice guidelines, he could not say if they would be charged.

- © Fairfax NZ News