Australian boy's family back magpie killing after he was chased to his death

The family of an Ipswich boy chased to his death by a magpie last year has called for tighter controls on the birds after another was spared the death penalty. And a Griffith University magpie expert says someone loses an eye every year in Australia to attacks from the black and white feathered icons. The comments came as a menacing magpie that attacked a Tweed Heads schoolgirl was given a death row reprieve, after gun-shy police refused to execute it.

The decision flew in the face of a destruction order issued by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, which had declared the magpie "an aggressive bird". Wildlife lovers had condemned the planned execution but the family of 12-year-old Ivan Sthrowski-Wood, who ran into the path of a car while fleeing a swooping magpie at Walloon in August last year, backed the use of lethal force against "rogue" birds.



"The State Government brings in all these wildlife protection laws but doesn't do enough to protect humans," relative Keith Nutton said. "The same magpie that was responsible for Ivan's death had been harassing quite a few people but it took a tragedy for the Government to do something about it and relocate the bird.

"We're not anti-magpie but if these birds are attacking people, they need to be destroyed. We've got to stop pussyfooting around." Griffith University behavioural ecologist Darryl Jones said he and fellow researchers had recorded about 1000 magpie attacks a year in southeast Queensland during a 1990s study. He said while serious injuries were rare, "at least one eye is lost every year".