A STOURPORT farmer was devastated to find two of her free range pigs shot dead in a field over the weekend.

Kate Daniels and her partner Alison Bowden, discovered the two dead pigs with bullet wounds at around 10pm on Saturday (October 10) at Little Black Pig, Willow Farm, in Crossway Green near Stourport.

They were alerted to the incident after hearing the animals in distress and Miss Daniels believes the pigs were shot for slaughter – one had been shot between the eyes and the other in the mouth. No gunshots were heard at the time.

Kate and Alison believe the financial loss to their business because of the attack is in the region of £800.

Kate said: “I suspect they were after the meat. I have read in the farming press about attacks on sheep like this, with butchery carried out in the field – I have never come across anyone taking on a pig before though.

"We are shocked and upset. We are particularly distressed by the trauma cause to the pigs which feels like a violation of everything we stand for, our high welfare standards.

"Obviously there's a financial impact and a sense of our farm being invaded."

The remaining six pigs in the field were found huddled in a corner, severely distressed.

Both the pigs were young females, known as gilts, in their second trimester of pregnancy.

Alison said: “I am gutted. This is a mindless act.

“I am worried about the remaining pigs as stress can make them ill.

“Our customers love seeing the pigs out in the field when they come to the farm shop, but we are now worried about them being out in the open.

“How can we protect them from this?”

West Mercia Police were called to the farm after the pigs were discovered.

A spokesman said: “The offence would have caused considerable amount of distress for the owners and we want to reassure them, as well as the public, that this is an extremely rare incident.

"We are not currently aware of other reports of this nature and we will fully investigate the circumstances which led to this crime. We want to reiterate we do not tolerate behaviour like this.

"West Mercia Police is committed to making rural communities feel safe and we are working with our partners to develop ways of bringing us closer to the people who need us. We have also launched our Rural Matters campaign which includes everything from crime prevention advice to information on rural crime operations.”

Kate added: “We would like to reassure all our customers business will continue as normal, despite this upsetting episode.

“If we have a shortage of home produced pork, we will seek help from farming friends who share our ethos about raising pigs in a high welfare system.”

Anyone with information regarding the incident at the farm is asked to call police on 101, quoting incident reference number 749S of October 10.