A UK city has become so damaged by ‘yob culture’ that cats are slain in the street and booze has been banned.
Salisbury in Wiltshire is a beautiful place, with a breathtaking 13th-century cathedral and historic winding streets, but something sinister has been brewing. Police have now enacted new measures to limit anti-social behaviour in the town after a spate of incidents, including cats and pigeons being shot.
The issue has been causing the community significant grief and upset. Writing in the Salisbury Noticeboard Facebook group in May, one resident said: “So this evening I have had the unfortunate job of going down to the Poultry Cross to rescue a pigeon who had been shot and was hanging alive in the netting bleeding. A kind lady had already taken a pigeon to the vets to be put to sleep that was also shot, but on the ground suffering.
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“And another one was dead on the ground that had also been shot. I know a lot of you will say it is just a pigeon! But two of these birds were suffering…. Please parents of Salisbury teenagers can you take these weapons (catapults, pellet guns etc) off your children. This is animal cruelty and it is getting beyond a joke.”
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One elderly resident told the Sun that they welcomed the ban. She feared the “yob culture” and explained: “I find it very intimidating if I come across a bunch of drunken people wandering around the town centre with cans of beer in their hands.”
The move has also been welcomed by the Salde family, whose cat Boots was found dead in the street with pellets from a catapult next to him in May of this year. They got the sweet black and white cat in lockdown as a way to help the children through the challenging time.
Speaking to the outlet, mum Stacey said: “He was an instant success with us all, especially our young, four-year-old daughter. When Boots was attacked and killed by those yobs we were all utterly devastated. It was such an unbelievably cruel thing to do.”
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She said she and her husband were unable to tell the children what had happened, instead telling them he had been killed in an accident.
“My daughter was particularly upset. She cried and cried and told us off for not taking him to the vets to ‘make him better again’, as she put it,” she said. “The whole episode was just so traumatic for the family.”
In response to the vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the area, Wiltshire Police has introduced a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in Salisbury and parishes around it.
Laverstock and Ford, Quidhampton, Netherhampton, Wilton, Alderbury, Odstock and Coombe Bissett all fall under the order, which makes it an offence to have a catapult or slingshot or anything that could be used as a missile and police now have the ability to seize booze from anyone they regard to be acting in an anti-social manner.
(Image: UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Failure to do so could lead to a £100 fine and if that is not paid it rises to £1,000. The issue, however, appears to be ongoing.
Writing in the Facebook group, one resident wrote: “Just found catapult ammo in the garden, so they are not getting handed in”.
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