NSW Police Shot a Magpie After it Swooped an Old Lady

Police gunned down a swooping magpie last week after it attacked an old lady in the street. The magpie had become apparently notorious for accosting people as they came and went from the Wyrallah Rd Shopping Centre in East Lismore, and caused the 70-year-old woman to fall down and hurt her knee. So two New South Wales Police officers, dressed in t-shirts and shorts promptly shot the magpie out of a palm tree.

Now, is shooting Australia's 2017 Bird of the Year because it swooped an old lady a bit much? It seems like maybe it is. But Richmond Police District Inspector David Vandergriend insists it’s not uncommon for officers to “destroy magpies that are putting members of the public at risk”—especially during swooping season.

“Our specialised police, highly trained tactical police, are called regularly at this time of year,” he told the Northern Star. “We get requested, in writing, by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to euthanise birds that are causing risk or injury to members of the public.”

“We don’t just rock up and think ‘there’s a swooping bird, we’ll shoot it.”

Naturally, though, witnesses were more than a little rattled by the public execution. One bystander told News Corp that she couldn’t sleep the night of the incident, and kept replaying the shooting over in her head.

“I saw these blokes with guns and I didn’t know what the hell was happening because there was no uniforms, there was no cop car, there was nothing,” she said. “It scared the living hell out of me until they shot the bird, then fear just turned to anger. I would like to know why the hell they did it when there were people around.”

Another witness claimed that “Something should have been done to warn the people what was about to happen. Everybody that I saw looked rattled, they just looked upset.

“I don’t think they should ever go about anything in that fashion.”

The NSW Police handbook has a whole section dedicated to "Magpie Destruction", which states that officers are authorised to kill an Australian magpie as long as it is not in a national park, nature reserve or historic site, or on private property without the property owner’s approval. It specifically suggests that a shotgun be used to deal with any troublesome birds.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, meanwhile, states that “Magpies are protected throughout NSW, and it is against the law to kill the birds, collect their eggs, or harm their young.

“If you feel a magpie is a serious menace, it should be reported to your local council.”