A second man has been questioned by police after about 50 dead animals were dumped outside a village shop.

A member of staff was opening the Broughton Community Shop in Hampshire when they encountered the “horrifying” scene on 15 March.

Officers were called and found the corpses of hares, a barn owl and a kestrel outside the store.

The previous month, 25 dead animals, including a decapitated deer and the carcasses of pheasants and hares, were reportedly found near a primary school in the village of Awbridge, a few miles away.

Police had arrested and questioned a 37-year-old man from Totton in connection with the Broughton incident. He was later released on bail.

Hampshire Constabulary said a 27-year-old man from the Hythe area has now also been questioned.

The force said examinations of the barn owl and kestrel – both legally protected birds – revealed they had been shot with a gun.

The owl and kestrel were “stuffed” on the door handles and blood smeared on the windows, the shop’s treasurer said.

“It was bedlam, it was just covered in dead hares, all the way across this paving here, horrifying,” Mike Hensman told Sky News.

“And on the door there was a dead raptor, bird of prey, and an owl impaled on the door handles. And there was blood everywhere.”

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Police ‘following various lines of inquiry’

A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary said: “Officers have questioned a second man in connection with an incident in which dead animals were left outside a shop in Broughton.”

They added: “Officers from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight country watch team have been following various lines of inquiry as part of the investigation.”

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