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Police search for alpaca killer who shot four family pets dead in field
The Guardian
|March 25, 2025
Four alpacas have been found dead after being shot with a rifle in a field in Cambridgeshire, police said.
The killed animals - family pets named Calvin, Klein, Martha and Juniper - were attacked between 6pm on Saturday and 8.30am on Sunday in the parish of East Hatley, near the village of Gamlingay.
A ewe in the same field was also attacked by a dog and had to be put down, while another alpaca received a non-fatal gunshot wound to the face, said their owner, Dawn French.
Cambridgeshire police were carrying out house-to-house inquiries yesterday and have appealed for witnesses - or anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage from the area - to contact them.
Sgt Tom Nuttall, from the force's rural crime action team, said: "This was a highly distressing crime that has caused death and serious injury to defenceless animals."
A police spokesperson said investigators believed the weapon used to have been a ".22 or higher rifle".
This story is from the March 25, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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