It was a typically tranquil day at the community shop in the picture postcard village of Broughton on the banks of the Wallop Brook in Hampshire. Delicious breads and tempting cakes were being delivered – the store prides itself on supporting local suppliers – while a stream of customers, including villagers and groups of walkers and cyclists who know it is as an ideal stopping off point, kept the volunteers busy.
The scene that greeted the shop workers a few days earlier could hardly have been more different, after the battered remains of about 50 hares and two birds of prey were dumped in the early hours outside the shop. Blood was smeared on the windows and the bodies of a kestrel and barn owl jammed in the door handles.
