CRUEL animal abusers are targeting birds in Gorse Hill.

Pigeons have been found with their wings stuck together with tar, leaving them helpless, in pain and unable to move.

Malcolm Webb, 80, of Cheney Manor was horrified when his son Rory brought back a pigeon that had been immobilised in the black sticky stuff.

Pensioner Mr Webb said: “It’s terrible. It seemed to me that people had done it, we could not leave it like that.

“Its wings were all stuck together. It was still alive and the tops of its wings had been stuck.

“Its back feathers and tail feathers had also been stuck down,” he told the Advertiser.

Malcolm and Rory took the pigeon to Oak and Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre on the Blakehill Farm nature reserve near Cricklade.

There, they discovered that the horrible attack was not an isolated incident. Six adult pigeons and one baby bird had been found in a similar condition and brought to the animal sanctuary over the past two weeks. Oak and Furrows have since nursed them all back to good health.

The birds were bathed in margarine to get the tar out of their feathers, then given fluids at the vet.

When staff at the centre went out and looked they found even more tarred birds that couldn’t be rescued.

Serena Stevens, founder of Oak and Furrows said: “One of our drivers went out to investigate.

“A baby bird was dead and one adult was dead - all smothered in the stuff. It’s not normal, their wings have been completely stuck together, they can’t fly.”

According to Serena, they were found with small puddles of tar nearby which had bits of bread in it that the birds were eating.

Serena added: “I love pigeons and I’m angry that someone is deliberately doing this.This is cruelty, how would they like it done to them? The pigeons can’t move, they’re ingesting the tar.”

The abuse has been reported to the RSPCA.