HALIFAX -- Feathers and a few spots of blood are all that remain in the CF Champlain Mall parking lot in Dieppe, New Brunswick, after what appears to be an act of animal cruelty.

“The first person wasn’t quite sure of what happened,” says Atlantic Wildlife Care director, Pam Novak. “But he knew that there was a couple of dead birds here, so we figured we'd better come up and take a look.”

On Thursday, at around 10:30 a.m., Novak, alongside her team, responded to a call after receiving numerous reports of seagulls being run over in the mall’s parking lot.

“Four were already dead, they were dead on arrival and looked liked they had just been completely run over,” says Novak. “And then there was a fifth bird that was just maybe 25 to 30-feet away from the other birds that had a really nasty wing injury – so you could tell that was an impact injury as well.”

In total, six birds were killed. However, it’s not the first time seagulls have been the target of a hit-and-run in New Brunswick. In late October, a large flock was hit in the parking lot of the Moncton Coliseum.

“In that situation, there was a witness who saw a truck pull into the parking lot, get top speed, and then veered right into the whole flock of gulls and took down 31 of them,” says Novak.

Police in the area are taking the matter seriously – however, they’re only in the beginning stage of their investigation.

“At this point, what we know is that the seagulls were run over,” says Corporal Anne-Marie Michel-Poitras of Codiac RCMP. “We're still investigating and following up on anything that needs to be followed up on – there's nothing more really at this point because it's fairly new.”

Police won't say whether or not security footage is being used in their investigation, but Novak says some businesses in the area have come forward with information of their own.

“There was someone from TD who had contacted us saying they thought there might be some security or some video surveillance,” says Novak. “So, they were in contact with the RCMP directly to allow them to view their cameras.”

In an email, CF Champlain general manager, Brian MacMullin, says the mall is aware of the incident and is cooperating with RCMP and their investigation.

Police note that seagulls fall under the Migratory Birds Convention Act - making it a federal offence to kill or injure them.

Novak says the amount of birds killed is evidence that the incident was not an accident.

“We'll pick up the individuals on a pretty regular basis, but when you get an instance where multiple birds were hit all in one location – then that's telling you that somebody did something intentionally,” says Novak.

Meanwhile, police are asking anyone with information concerning either of the incidents to call Codiac RCMP or Crime Stoppers.