{"id":669896,"date":"2026-05-14T23:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/669896\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T23:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:00:08","slug":"tfl-bird-snagging-net-is-death-trap-and-must-be-removed-say-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/669896\/","title":{"rendered":"TfL bird-snagging net is death trap and must be removed, say residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents in west London<\/a> have urged Transport for London<\/a> to remove a safety net from a depot in Northfields<\/a> after wild birds were seen becoming trapped in it.<\/p>\n

Locals say gulls have repeatedly become entangled in the netting, sometimes remaining stuck for days before dying slow and painful deaths, with cries heard by nearby residents.<\/p>\n

Anthony Percival, who has lived near the depot for almost 40 years, reported one trapped seagull to TfL and wildlife<\/a> groups, which monitored the situation over four days.<\/p>\n

Staff from The Swan Sanctuary in Shepperton rescued the bird \u2014 named Gilbert by Mr Percival and his partner \u2014 but it died three days later.<\/p>\n

Mr Percival told the BBC<\/a>: “It’s quite upsetting, obviously, you could see it was distressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think birds have feelings and it was probably wondering how to get out and it was trying its best to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he feared more birds would suffer the same fate unless the netting was removed.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the sanctuary said the material did not work as a deterrent and described it as an \u201cexpensive death trap\u201d.<\/p>\n

A wildlife expert from the sanctuary noted five birds that had become trapped.<\/p>\n

He explained that wild birds are highly intelligent and that when one becomes stuck, others often respond to its distress calls and gather to help.<\/p>\n

He told the BBC he supported calls for a ban on bird-deterrent netting, arguing there were “proven, better ways to deter birds”.<\/p>\n

TfL said it was repairing the netting and would continue to monitor its effectiveness, adding that it takes animal welfare \u201cvery seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

Adrenne Reed, from TfL, said the netting had been installed to help reduce safety risks including flooding and blocked drainage.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, since it had been installed, there had been some damage to the netting and a small number of birds became trapped,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents in west London have urged Transport for London to remove a safety net from a depot in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[246874,49,48,246876,246873,246875,68108,198936,61,162187,100511],"class_list":["post-669896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-anthony-percival","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-death-trap","tag-mr-percival","tag-nearby-residents","tag-safety-net","tag-swan-sanctuary","tag-technology","tag-transport-for-london","tag-wild-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}