NEWS AND COMMENT-UK: Angry Izaak Bradbury, 29, is a bird lover. He keeps songbirds. He has alleged that his cat-loving neighbours, have allowed their cats to kill some of his birds. The news media does not report any details about this. I have to comment. I presume that his birds are kept in an aviary. How then did the cats get at the birds? And what kind of evidence did Mr Bradbury produce? We are not told.
We are told, however, that he is incredibly angry about it and he commenced a campaign of harassment against the cat-owning couple.
The harassment included the following:
- Throwing cat faeces towards their greenhouse;
- Throwing cat faeces at their car;
- Verbally abusing the couple;
- Putting cat faeces through their cat flap;
- Allegedly destroying a willow tree;
- Allegedly killing three of their cats (they have been lost in very mysterious circumstances it is reported) ;
- Reportedly telling the cat-loving woman that “he’d break her neck like a cat had done to his birds”;
- Writing “pervs” in the snow outside their home with his foot.
Mr Bradbury ended up in the criminal courts on a charge of harassment covering a six-month period. The court heard that he had previously received a community order for assault occasioning actual bodily harm which was still in place when he began harassing his neighbours.
The neighbours now lock and chain their front door when they are at home. They travel to their home using a route which does not pass by the home of Mr Bradbury. The couple had to install a security camera system worth £1100 to catch Mr Bradbury.
RELATED: Australian Ornithologist Misleads Online News Media On Cat Predation
In a statement at court the victim said “The ongoing harassment my husband and I have had to endure has had a financial and emotional impact.”
At court, Mr Bradbury’s barrister/solicitor said, in mitigation, that “He was going through a difficult period at the time due to Covid and his grandfather, who has since passed away, was unwell”. Mr Bradbury will be sentenced by the magistrates on June 7.
Comment: It is a classic example of how the ongoing war between bird lovers and cat lovers can explode into criminality. There is a lot of simmering anger among bird lovers about domestic cats being allowed to go outside and prey upon animals including birds. There has been a campaign online for many years now from ornithologists to force governments to change the law to confine cats to the home. It is having an effect. Australia leads the way in cat confinement under state-wide laws.
RELATED: Australian Capital Territory leads the world on cat containment
There is, in my view, a general drift towards domestic cat confinement. However, cat owners agree to confine their cats to their home not to protect wildlife but to protect their cats from road traffic accidents and people like Mr Bradbury who have a criminal record and don’t see a problem with criminal behaviour including allegedly harming cats. The story was first reported in the Stoke Sentinel and subsequently reported in The Sun and The Mirror newspapers.
Below are some more stories on criminality.
