This is the shocking moment a man was surrounded by police officers for feeding pigeons.
The incredible footage includes the man, wearing a beanie, being handcuffed and being pushed against a police car door as three officers surround him.
A large bag of birdseed can be seen next to him on the kerbside.
The nicked bird feeder can be heard saying to officers ‘I feed birds that’s my religion’ whilst shoppers watch on.
Footage later shows the distressed man hunched over and being led into the back of the police van where the door is shut and an officer can be heard saying he is ‘under arrest’.
The incident happened in Ellesmere Port town centre, in Cheshire, on Friday last week.
Tony Gath who witnessed the incident said he was ‘disturbed’ by what he had seen.
Tony said: ‘It was disgusting behaviour, all they had to do was educate the man on where he can and can’t feed the birds, then send him on his way.
‘I’m disturbed that they felt that level of intimidation and power was acceptable at all, not just in public.’
According to Wirral Council’s official website there are ‘no laws’ that the council can effectively use to stop people feeding wild birds.
But Environmental Health may be able to ‘take action in significant and excessive cases’ where rotten food waste is accumulating or the bird feeding can be shown to be the cause of an infestation of rats or mice.
Cheshire Police said the council had previously reported to the police that feeding of the birds in the area was causing an ‘increase in vermin’.
They also said officers only arrested the man who was feeding birds after be became ‘verbally and physically aggressive’ towards an officer.
A spokesperson for the force said: ‘At around 2.15pm on Friday 27th June, officers on patrol in Ellesmere Port town centre spoke to a man who was feeding birds in the area.
‘The council had previously reported to police that the feeding of the birds was causing an increase in vermin in the area and that they needed the details of the male to speak to him.
‘An officer attempted to engage with the man, but he became verbally and physically aggressive towards the officer.
‘He was then arrested for a public order offence – the man subsequently calmed down and was de-arrested.’
Hellbound and Down 