Since Easter Sunday, someone has been killing the ducks and geese at Costa Mesa’s TeWinkle Park with a pellet or BB gun, and now People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has $5,000 for anyone who helps track down the shooter.
As KTLA reports, the animal rights group announced the offer in a press release Thursday, stating that it is putting up the bounty “of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction on cruelty charges of the person(s) responsible for recently shooting and killing birds with a pellet gun at TeWinkle Park.”
At least seven wild birds have been killed in the park in the recent string of incidents. Four ducks who were seen alive and well on Easter Sunday, April 17, were found dead the next morning. Last Friday, three more birds were killed and a fourth, a Pekin duck, was wounded.
We hear your concerns and outrage about the recent shootings of ducks in TeWinkle Park. Regarding the shootings, please call the Costa Mesa Police Department with your questions and concerns at 714-754-5282 pic.twitter.com/osHeHeIkIA
— WildlifeCareCenter (@WWCCOC) May 2, 2022
Although the birds murdered last week were all killed with a BB or pellet gun, the ones shot on Easter revealed more disturbing evidence.
“And so these bright white objects are the bullets,” Dr. Elizabeth Wood, medical director of the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, told KTLA last month. “There’s one here, one here, one here, one here. Unfortunately we saw both pellets, which are spherical, and also actual bullets.”
Wildlife advocate Michelle Berger, who has been coming to the park for decades, told the station, “There’s people that are sick. They’re just monsters, and this is not the first time that this has happened here, but it’s very disconcerting, and it’s scary to the public to know that someone has come here with a gun.”
Berger knows from experience. In March, 1997, when four ducks and a goose were killed with a pellet gun at TeWinkle Park, Berger told the Los Angeles Times, “There are a lot of people who care about the birds. You see ducks and geese and egrets there. Now they’re killing mallards. Someone is just going out there and doing what they consider a fun time.”
PETA asks anyone with pertinent information to contact the Costa Mesa Police Department at 714-754-5282.
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