Swan dies and another injured after being peppered with shotgun bullets in South Yorkshire

A female swan was killed and another male bird is recovering after being peppered with pellets in a shotgun attack by yobs in South Yorkshire.

The birds were shot repeatedly on the Old Ea Beck river near Doncaster earlier this month – and police are now probing the attack.

Wildlife experts from the Yorkshire Swan and Wildlife Rescue Hospital are caring for the bird which survived the brutal assault, which has been described as “nothing less than a premeditated, deliberate and brutal act of animal cruelty.”

Staff from the hospital were called to Hampole Balk Lane in Skellow on March 11 after a number of residents reported seeing the male bird covered in blood.