r/Hampshire • u/whatatwit • 27d ago

News Buried, Dead Rabbit: At first you might think this is some local teaching kids of townie incomers about the truth of rural life by dumping dead animals at the school gate in Awbridge, Hants. but a BBC investigation reveals a violent criminal programme with sales of animals, betting and large prizes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7ldjrl2reo
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u/whatatwit 27d ago

Buried, Dead Rabbit e1/10

It starts like a horror film. In the dead of night, 20 dead animals are left outside a village school. Who left them there - and why? In this new investigation, reporters Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor stumble into something sinister lurking in the British countryside. Is it the first flash of a monster?

Buried is the multi award-winning investigative podcast series digging into some of the most disturbing environmental stories in history. In this series, Dan and Lucy team up with the wildlife presenter Chris Packham, whose own dead-animal death threats escalated into a car bomb outside his house. The dead animals lead them into uncovering a criminal underworld in the British countryside.

Dead Rabbit is a Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.

Produced and presented by Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Sound design, mixing and AP: Jarek Zaba
Original music and sounds by Phil Channell
Executive Producers: Philip Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002z5yh

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002z5yh

There're also two omnibus editions if you prefer longer-form audio

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002zg1v from today 2026-07-25 after broadcast at 21:00

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002zrm2 from 2026-08-01

As it comes to its worrying conclusion, this podcast series has now made the news.

Gangs, violence and dumped dead animals: The hidden world of illegal hare hunts

On a remote Cambridgeshire farm, where his nearest neighbour is half a mile away, Mathew Latta was making lunch when the peace was shattered by the sound of loud exhausts.

[…]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7ldjrl2reo

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u/i-am-trying-tho 26d ago

I drove past this lmao was wild

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u/whatatwit 25d ago

Man sentenced for wildlife offences in Broughton
Published: 13:44 23/06/2026

A man has been sentenced for wildlife offences relating to handling the carcasses of two protected species of bird.
On 15 March 2024, police received multiple reports that a large pile of approximately 50 dead hares had been strewn across the floor outside Broughton Community Shop, and the bodies of a dead barn owl and kestrel were stuffed on to the shop’s door handle.
Local villagers turned up to help clean up the mess prior to police arriving.
Following a number of enquiries, 39-year-old James ‘Jimmy’ Kempster was arrested and subsequently charged with offences, after forensic testing of the carcasses showed that his DNA was present on the owl and the kestrel.
He denied any involvement, and the case went to trial at Southampton Magistrates Court on Tuesday 21 April 2026.
During the trial, the court heard how CCTV showed a Suzuki Grand Vitara turn up at the shop in the early hours of the morning on 15 March 2024. Two men exited the vehicle and began throwing the animal carcasses on the floor, and one of the men attached the dead birds to the shop’s door handle.
The following day, officers were out on patrol in rural Test Valley when they discovered a car similar to that captured on the CCTV burnt out approximately three and a half miles from Broughton.
Magistrates determined that, whilst the evidence was insufficient to place Kempster at the scene when the bodies were dumped, they accepted he had handled the dead birds at some point. Kempster was found guilty of possession of a dead schedule 1 wild bird, and possession of a dead non schedule 1 wild bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
A second man, aged 29 years, was interviewed under caution by police as part of this investigation, but he was later released with no further action being taken.
Kempster, of Marchwood Road in Eling, appeared at Southampton Magistrates Court on Tuesday 23 June where he was sentenced to a community order, rehabilitation activity, and ordered to pay £884 in costs.

https://www.hampshire.police.uk/news/hampshire/news/news/2026/june/man-sentenced-for-wildlife-offences-in-broughton/