Recovering birds shot dead at wildlife rehab centre in Hinckley

A crow on the verge of being released was among the birds shot dead at the sanctuary

A wildlife rehabilitation centre said it had been forced to abandon its bird enclosures after several recovering birds were shot dead.

The owners of Little Souls Wildlife Rescue - which cares for all animals - said they felt the site in Hinckley, Leicestershire was no longer safe.

They have stopped taking in new animals and moved current patients to a "less suitable" site.

Police said they were investigating but no arrests had been made.

The sanctuary was started by Kaye and Andy Leadbetter in March 2020 to help one of their daughters cope with the first coronavirus lockdown.

At one point they were taking in injured animals from all over the country before releasing them back into the wild and had 42 birds under their care.

The birds were kept in custom-made enclosures to give them space to fly safely as they recovered

The birds were kept in enclosures on land near an allotment in order to give them space to practice flying.

However in mid-July the couple had 10 birds mysteriously die and found pellets from an air rifle inside one of them.

Several more deaths followed in August, including five birds in the space of 36 hours, bringing the total killed to 19.

They included a white dove and crow that were both on the verge of being released back into the wild.

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"It's sickening," said Mr Leadbetter. "There's no rhyme or reason.

"It was heartbreaking going down every day to feed them and check on them and find more birds dead.

"We have spent hours and hours looking after them and spent a lot of money on making the enclosures so that other animals couldn't access them and nothing could get in."

The centre opened last year after the family decided they want to help injured animals

A new patch of land or an old farm building is now being sought for the remaining birds to move to.

Only then, the owners said, will they be able to take in animals again.

"At the moment all we can do is care for our longer term patients in our little unit at home," said Mr Leadbetter.

"But we are at full capacity and the birds that we have got we can't put them together.

"That's what was so ideal about this space we had, we could put different types of birds in separate enclosures.

"But we've had to stop using them because we just couldn't risk any more being killed."

He added that if another location could not be found the centre might not be able to take any sick or injured animals again.

Leicestershire Police confirmed it was called on 4 August to a report of deceased birds at a business premises where the birds "appeared to have be shot with an air weapon".

The force said officers attended and carried out inquiries.