Rare animals are gunned down at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell

12:02pm Tuesday 2nd December 2008

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The owner of two rare-breed animals shot on a Brightwell-cum-Sotwell smallholding has branded the attacks “animal cruelty at its worst”.

Chris Ottaway has lost two of his animals in separate attacks over the past five months, both shot in the leg by what is thought to be a rifle.

It is totally out of order. It is animal cruelty at its worst

Smallholder Chris Ottaway

They were injured so badly that a vet had to put them down.

Mr Ottaway, who started breeding rare animals just a year ago, said: “I can’t understand why anybody would be so cruel, there is no reason for it.

“It is totally out of order, it’s animal cruelty at its worst.

“I am really angry more than anything.”

The 25-year-old smallholder discovered his rare white rhea — a large bird similar to an ostrich — collapsed in the field it shares with its female mate on Friday, November 28.

He said: “I went down there to feed them and every other morning they are up at the gate demanding food.

“But the female was running about at the end, not quite knowing what to do, and the male was in a heap at the end of the field.”

Mr Ottaway bought the pair of rheas two weeks earlier for £300 each.

He said: “Rheas live in pairs and small groups, but now I have a lone female who is pining.”

In June, one of his three Patagonian cavy — a rodent the size of a hare whose closest relative is a guinea pig — was also shot in the leg.

Bigwig, as the cavy was named after the rabbit in the novel Watership Down, had been part of Mr Ottaway’s menagerie of turkeys, peacocks, pigs and guinea pigs for the past year.

He said: “Bigwig was the only one I named as she was my favourite and was the most distinguishable. You get so attached to them.”

The smallholder intended to breed from Bigwig. but will have to spend another £200 to replace her.

Mr Ottaway, of Cumnor Road, Wootton, who owns pet shop Python’s Lair Exotic Pets at Drayton, reported both incidents to police last Friday.

He believes the two shootings are linked as both animals were shot in the leg with what Mr Ottaway thinks was a rifle.

He said: “I am so angry and so upset — I don’t know why somebody would purposely want to harm any animal.”