Thursday 7 August 2014

Speechless

Arcot Lane this evening, and something on the road near the entrance to the lakes. As I neared, NINE dead young stoats (EDIT: These may be weasels - can anyone advise, please? RE-EDIT: They are weasels), laid out randomly, not squashed by a car, and two with bright red blood from the mouth and one partially disemboweled. They were all the same size, about 6 to 7 inches. I moved them onto the verge, hence the photos below. I might be near 50 yrs old, but this had me gutted. Any theories appreciated.

4 comments:

  1. If they are weasels then they are almost fully grown. If stoats you would expect to see a black tip on the tail. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=young+stoats&newwindow=1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=JMfkU-TXC8G47Ab22IBA&ved=0CE4QsAQ&biw=1920&bih=901
    I ignored the bit where you send that you had moved them typically if some sort of ratting dog had got at them then it would scatter the bodies. However I'm sure they would run away given the chance so it would be unlikely to get so many, unless someone had confined them for, and I use the word wrongly here "sport". I was working on the theory a cat had got at the nest. Talk to RSPCA/Police dog men are in general scum who will set their dogs on anything for fun. While there is no protection for either species it may still breach hunting with dogs act.

    ReplyDelete
  2. An awful sight. In more ways than one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Note the injury similarities on this dog killed stoat. http://www.earthdog-runningdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Pic1.jpg

    ReplyDelete