Rural crime

Two men have been sentenced following the theft of livestock worth £30,000 from numerous farms in the north east of Scotland.

Fly-tipping dumped on farmland in Wales was swiftly cleared after a group of farmers employed lawyers to track down and punish the offender.

Sussex police are investigating the theft of 50 hens, after hundreds of animal rights activists occupied a poultry farm this week (January 27).

Thieves have stolen livestock worth £3 million in the last year, with some animals butchered in farmers’ fields and the meat then sold on the black market.

Macabre pictures showing the carcase of a beheaded prize ram have sent shock waves of revulsion across Saddleworth village

MP Graham Stuart has called for the Home Office, Defra and the Ministry of Justice to come together for a special summit to tackle the ‘blight’ of hare coursing.

Police are trying to reunite a flock of sheep with their owner after the animals were seized in North Yorkshire.