Rural crime

A probe into supermarket Booths which sold beef from South America and Europe under a ’Best British’ logo could unravel a deeper web of food fraud, an organisation representing the meat industry industry has warned.

With livestock attacks once again in the news, it is important for farmers to know where they stand legally and the measures which they can take to protect their flocks.

A 23-YEAR-OLD MAN from Northamptonshire has been convicted of theft after he stole a sheep, shot it dead and fed it to a pack of hounds.

Two Devonshire farmers have won a High Court battle to prevent people wild camping on their land in Dartmoor National Park.

Farmers are being urged to fortify their farmyards to deter thieves from draining their fuel tanks after diesel thefts more than doubled over the last 12 months.

A water company has been fined more than £500,000 after a raw sewage discharge killed 5,000 fish in a Northamptonshire river.

A Devon farmer has been given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay almost £74,000 in costs after pleading guilty to illegally grazing cattle on a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

More than 25 pregnant sheep have been killed in Kent in what local officers are calling ‘the worst livestock attack’ the force has ever seen.

More than £1million worth of machinery, tools and equipment have been recovered since the launch of dedicated rural crime team.

A crackdown on hare coursing led to more than 20 arrests in just one month, police in Lincolnshire have revealed.