This is horrific.
Posted on Twitter this morning:
There are at least 38 dead hares and a dead kestrel and barn owl. This is a village community shop in Broughton near Stockbridge.
Hampshire Police have attended the scene, removed the corpses and have launched an investigation.
UPDATE 29 March 2024: Man in custody in relation to dumped hares and raptors outside Broughton community shop (here)
UPDATE 11 April 2024: Police interview second man in relation to dumped hares and raptors outside Broughton community shop (here)
UPDATE 14 August 2024: Man charged in connection to dumped hares and raptors outside community shop in Hampshire (here)
UPDATE 12 September 2024: Man in court in connection to dumped hares and shot raptors at Broughton community shop, Hampshire (here)
UPDATE 29 September 2024: Trial date set in relation to dumping of dead raptors & hares outside Broughton community shop (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
The people who did this are disgusting and are depraved. what does this killing fest achieve? What a waste of animal life.
When we are eradicated from the planet by our own hand or when nature finds a way! A virus that mutates quicker than covid, because we don’t deserve this wonderful planet let another species evolve to be better than us! What a wonderful place it would be without us.
They will get karma. I believe this. I did ask if it’s possible for people to get serious karma for murdering animals and birds. I was told a definite ‘yes’.
Well said Patrick. I too have a strong faith based in nature, and have always believed Mother Nature & Mother Karma are the same; at the core of a set of beliefs those of us follow similar faiths. We who live our lives, centered around honouring, protecting, cherishing Wildlife & Nature. When events such as this occur, cruelty, destruction of wildlife, animals, Nature, whether random or deliberate, make us feel helpless as it sometimes will, there also comes a time when we ask for help, much in the same manner people pray to their own faith deities, i.e. “Let go, let God”,
I ask Mother to help me do all I am humanely able to do, then ask her to help with the burden, and to take the weight from my shoulders; to remove my useless emotions of bitterness, fury, and hate; to replace their wasteful energy with the strength to refocus on positive emotions of hope, trust, and sense of purpose… when combined with like minds worldwide, we become a force to be reckoned with, and thank you to Ruth for giving us the space we need in order to do so.
“Let go, Let Mama Karma”
Warmest regards to everyone,
R Elizabeth
I wonder what the Community Shop did to invoke this?
So this is justified then?
Only to people who think like you.
Probably refused to sell game meat, just a thought, what occurred though is not justified for any reason whatsoever.
The Manager has informed me that she/they “have no idea who or why they were targeted”.
Of course, there will be a reason… it doesn’t have to be rational. I have seen claims that it is part of a pattern, but I haven’t tracked down the source… If there is a pattern, and it is relatively local, the Police will know…
Random acts of violence are notoriously difficult to solve:-(
this should be posted on local social media sites. Someone will know who did this, difficult to kill this amount in a hurry
Whoever has done this will be known locally. This has the feel of a vendetta/revenge campaign. Let’s hope they have the courage to name and shame
This looks targeted, personal. If so, hopefully the police will soon get a steer on where to look.
Absolutely disgusting. Having worked for many years with the type of people who would commit such an abhorrent act I would think this was a targeted statement against the premises or someone connected with it. Rather like sticking 2 fingers up in act of defiance. Hope the police find out who is responsible.
Like all of us I have seen plenty of dead animals killed gratuitously but this has me sick to the stomach in it’s blatant violence.
How to make friends and influence people !!!
To those of you saying this appears targeted, the same thing happened recently at a primary school about five miles away. I’m not sure what the school and the shop would have in common other than being in nearby villages? Also, wouldn’t this be a lot of waste to the type of people that might normally kill these animals? The whole thing just seems bizarre!
“Also, wouldn’t this be a lot of waste to the type of people that might normally kill these animals?”
I don’t understand this comment. People who kill hares in this number (and raptors) do not usually eat them.
I, too, have seen comments claiming this is part of some pattern of animal abuse, but the scope was not explained, and I have yet to find the source.
Sorry, don’t know much about this kind of thing. I just assumed people that hunted hares did so to eat them and therefore I’d be surprised that they would dump like this.
The people who did this are part of our society. They need locking up because they clearly don’t conform to the moral standards of a normal person. Not only do they pose a risk to animal life, but to human life as well. We are all in danger whilst they move amongst us.
[Ed: comment deleted. Racism isn’t tolerated here]
what the hells wrong with you? Have you got mental health issues?
This needs the maximum publicity by locals, putting pressure on the Crime Commissioner, and seeking a reaction from their MP.
Perhaps conservation organisations could act jointly.
feel sorry for these people,if you’re life is so shallow that you would sink to a level such as this, there’s not much to look forward to in your future sorry life!
[Ed: racism isn’t tolerated here]
my comment had nothing to do with racism??, it’s from experience
[Ed: Final warning for you, too, andrewsmout966]
[Ed: Mudman, for the last time, racism isn’t tolerated on this site. Final warning]
Story now picked up by the Guardian.
Suggestion that it’s the work of hare coursers seems plausible.
Given the class dynamics involved I suspect there will be no political pressure on the police to go easy.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/16/dozens-of-dead-wild-animals-dumped-outside-hampshire-shop
Thanks for the link. It appears the ‘pattern’ of behaviour is limited to two events (so far)?
I guess only the Police know the injuries inflicted on the hares… Surely hare coursers will not be shooting hares? And this also seems to me to be far too many dead hares (by an order of magnitude) for any (single day’s) coursing event?
Have all the corpses been dead for a similar time (are coursers deep freezing corpses from many events, just to be used for such public intimidation purposes)?
Why would hare coursers kill either raptors or pheasants (which would almost certainly have been shot)?
It doesn’t quite add up…
Hi Keith, I’ve zero knowledge about this case but from local & regional experience elsewhere I know 35 hares isn’t viewed as a particular rarity for one night. These days it isn’t just old Claude Greengrass types out with their whippets, it is 3 or 4 vehicles full of lads and dogs who cover a lot of miles during the night. Driving between productive areas that they have been watching / sharing info about on social media. AS and aside, it is unfortunately true that in lots of areas it is only the actions of keepers and farmers & their allies that keep them away. A spectrum of activities ranging from bona fide Farmwatch schemes to the downright vigilante does go on. This circumstance is very pertinent as to why lots of decent “country people” turn a blind eye to wildlife crime by Estates and their keepers. Rightly or wrongly they would not wish their locality to lose the “protection” of (especially) the keepers who tend to dominate countryside during the night, and let the other group “get in”. Whether their fears are real, exaggerated or wholly imagined will depend on the area I guess, but it is perception that has the effect of their supporting the dominance of Estates & keepers as the lesser of two evils.
What an utter waste of life ,these look to have been killed by Saddow’s just for the sick fun of it .I’m not in high hopes of anything serious coming from the police investigation.
Further to my comments above, I suspect that this incident might be a ‘set-up’ – for a nefarious purpose…
Rural crime – involving the theft and possible exportation of very expensive farm machinery – is quite a big problem.
Land-owners and farmers often suspect a specific community.
Hare coursers are also a country curse: they inflict a lot of damage to crops, hedges, gateways etc. They no doubt interfere with farm, and some land-owners, businesses. They are also feared to some extent because they sometimes happen upon isolated farms mob-handed…
Land-owners and farmers also often suspect a specific community: the same community blamed in some quarters for farm machinery theft. They may be right or wrong – who knows?
Farmers and land-owners often feel persecuted by these crimes – and frustrated that the Police find it hard to successfully bring about prosecutions.
Depending upon the evidence, of course, this could well be the result of a ‘lamping’ exercise from some aggrieved farmer/land-owner or owners, with the intention of stirring up local anxiety and hatred toward their target community?
It would help explain the inclusion of raptors and game birds.
And it would help explain the choice of sensitive communal spaces (primary school, community shop) where the perpetrator(s) would hope lots of otherwise unaffected people would be outraged.
When that happens, there quickly follows claims that it must be the result of the activities of a specific community being blamed for farm machinery theft and hare coursing.
By ridding their land of hares, might they also hope to thwart the hare-coursers anyway?
I’ve read that the community shop was covered by CCTV and the whole incident was captured, with footage now in the hands of Hampshire Police.
Good.
Thank goodness for CCTV there is hopefully Karma as previously mentioned I’m other wise speechless you’ve all said pretty much what people think .
Absolutely abominable!!!