City farm vandalism sees animals lost to fox

A small community farm in Southampton say an overnight break-in has left them devastated.

Staff at Southampton City Farm said that some of their chickens were released overnight by vandals before being taken by foxes.

They said doors and locks to enclosures were also forced or broken.

With the help of the local community, the charity said they've now raised two thousand pounds "overnight" to help pay for repairs.

Staff said the break-in took place overnight on June 30.

Manager Tom Kitcher said it's not the first time they've seen break-ins like this.

"Unfortunately, every single enclosure was disturbed in some way," he said.

"The locks were bent out of shape and the bolts were almost smashed off the coops."

He said the door to an enclosure of chicken coops, and that some chickens had been released.

"The bodies were found near a fox den, essentially," he said.

Kitcher said that the incident had a "massive impact" on the staff at the charity.

"It's come at a very tough time where we're working so incredibly hard as a team to constantly improve the farm."

"When someone comes in and rips the wood off the enclosure you've just built...it's quite demoralising," he said.

But he said the response from the community had been "incredible" and that they had raised £2000 overnight to replace padlocks and clasps and to pay for a new chicken coop.

"We had people dropping in with tea and biscuits for the team," he said. "It restores your faith in everything, to be honest."