hunck
Antediluvian
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2011
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- 9,533
- Location
- Hobbs End
So that’s 4 incidents we know about so far - 3 at schools & 1 shop. The plot thickens..A bit more info has cropped up, now that London journos have donned their wellies and come down to deeps of the SW.
Interesting quotes from locals in an article here, from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...d-birds-of-prey-dumped-outside-hampshire-shop:
"...But why leave the carcasses outside the shop in Broughton, a village of about 1,000 inhabitants renowned locally for the dovecote in the churchyard said to have been gifted by Richard III?
“That’s the puzzle,” said Mike Hensman, treasurer of the shop. “We think it may just be location.” The village is roughly equidistant between the cities of Winchester, Salisbury and Southampton. It is surrounded by open farmland and chalky downland, good hare territory....
“I don’t think it was a planned, targeted attack,” said Hensman. “Just one of those things that happens in the countryside. We’re a resilient lot. People were shocked but not scared and we’ve rallied round.”...
....“I don’t think it was a planned, targeted attack,” said Hensman. “Just one of those things that happens in the countryside. We’re a resilient lot. People were shocked but not scared and we’ve rallied round.”
It is not the first time there has been such an incident. Last month, about 25 dead hares, rabbits, pheasants and a decapitated deer were left outside a village primary school in Awbridge, 7 miles from Broughton. Villagers say there were two similar incidents at two other schools that have not made headlines. In January a deer was discovered strung up in a tree in the nearby town of Totton.
One Broughton resident, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said there was undoubtedly a pattern and that the Awbridge incident happened after a farmer confronted hare coursers using his land.
They said that a few days before the bodies were left at the Broughton shop, an attempted burglary in the village was thwarted. “What happens is, the gangs try to intimidate people. The animals are a message: ‘We can do what we want and you can’t catch us.’ There can be a ‘them and us’ situation too. This is a wealthy village. That can make us unpopular.”....
.....In September last year five men were sentenced after an investigation by the specialist country watch team into a group of men who drove on to farmland near Winchester, damaging crops, before hare coursing in a field. Police found the men with lurcher dogs, dead hares and two dead rabbits. Sentences included community orders, fines and bans on driving and owning dogs.
But it is a big patch to police and in January National Farmers Union members met officers in Hampshire to discuss an increase in hare coursing. One Hampshire estate has reported more than a dozen cases to the police since November.
After the incident at Broughton on Friday, Hampshire police found a burnt-out Suzuki Grand Vitara car they believe was connected. They are also examining the shop’s CCTV footage....."