A Fife man has categorically denied that he whacked a bird so hard it had to be put down despite being convicted following what has been described as a “deliberate and callous act of animal cruelty”.
Kirkcaldy resident William McMahon was convicted of breaking the bird’s leg after striking it with an umbrella.
The 68-year-old, of Kennedy Crescent, was fined £600 at the town’s sheriff court following a Scottish SPCA investigation.
Mr McMahon, a former budgie breeder, was previously found guilty of intentionally or recklessly injuring a fledgling herring gull contrary to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Yesterday, in the wake of his sentence, SSPCA senior inspector John Chisholm said: “McMahon was witnessed taking a large golf umbrella out the boot of his car and proceeding towards the gull chick, which was in his garden.
“When the bird ran into the next garden, McMahon was seen leaning over the fence and striking it with the umbrella.
“The gull was clearly injured and concerned locals put it in a box before contacting us for help. We took the bird to our National Wildlife Rescue Centre where it was found to have a broken leg.
“Sadly, it was in a great deal of pain due to the severity of the fracture and had to be put to sleep to end any further suffering.
“This was a deliberate and callous act of animal cruelty against a defenceless young bird and we welcome McMahon’s conviction.”
Speaking to The Courier at his home, Mr McMahon maintained that he had not hurt the bird and had, in fact, being trying to help it.
The retired painter and decorator claimed the bird had fallen off a roof two doors along and made its way through front gardens before hiding behind a plant pot in front of his living room window.
He said he had not even known it was there until two Fife Council workmen sitting in a van alerted him to it.
Mr McMahon said he had been emptying his car boot to fit a tow bar and had picked up a brolly from the ground to try and encourage the bird to move. But he denied he whacked it.
He said: “How can anyone prove the bird did not already have a broken leg after falling off the roof? I did not whack it. I was trying to help the bird.”
Mr McMahon, who used to donate money to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and whose back garden is full of bird feeders, said he loved birds, as did his wife.
He accepted the conviction because he “wanted it to be the end of it”.
But he said he believed the fine was “excessive” and he was considering the advice of his lawyer to appeal.
Mr McMahon added that police were investigating threats made to him after an earlier court appearance.