{"id":196160,"date":"2025-12-22T09:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196160\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T09:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:43:07","slug":"its-upset-us-all-new-forest-residents-unnerved-by-man-leaving-animal-carcasses-by-churches-animal-welfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196160\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s upset us all\u2019: New Forest residents unnerved by man leaving animal carcasses by churches | Animal welfare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The people of the New Forest are accustomed to curious goings-on. The woods and heaths of the national park in southern England<\/a> are the setting for all manner of tales of witches, pixies, cursed souls and rituals, and, even today, are a magnet for those fascinated by the otherworldly.<\/p>\n

But residents are aghast at the case of a local man who hit the headlines after admitting dumping the carcasses of animals,<\/a> including black lambs, near churches in and around the forest, apparently targeting Christian worshippers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a terrible thing to do,\u201d said Myra Noyce, one of the livestock owners Benjamin Lewis stole lambs from. \u201cIt\u2019s upset us all, made us feel very uncomfortable. This is a lovely part of the world and to think of someone going around doing something like that is horrible. What was he thinking of?\u201d<\/p>\n

A year ago, livestock began to go missing, and Hampshire and Isle of Wight police received reports of carcasses<\/a> of sheep and deer being left in and around New Forest churches.<\/p>\n

Parsonage Farm, which had three sheep stolen by Benjamin Lewis, who dumped their carcasses at the nearby St Peter\u2019s church and on a signpost. Photograph: Peter Flude\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The force took it seriously, launching extra patrols in the villages and towns targeted and in May arrested Lewis, who lives in the town of Totton on the eastern edge of the forest.<\/p>\n

On 15 December at Southampton crown court Lewis admitted five counts of religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress and two charges of theft of lambs. The court heard Lewis was motivated by \u201chostility\u201d to Christians and he was remanded in custody before his sentencing next year.<\/p>\n

The detail of his case will emerge then but Lewis is known to have an interest in the supernatural, particularly vampires and horror stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty awful \u2013 there are some silly people around,\u201d said Sarah Harrison, a New Forest farmer Lewis stole black lambs from. One of her lambs ended up outside St Peter\u2019s church in the village of Bramshaw<\/a>, another draped over a finger post. \u201cI suppose it\u2019s to do with his beliefs but it\u2019s scared some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tapestry depicting a ritual dance beside Stonehenge, inside witch-themed shop Cobwebs & Crystals in the village of Burley. Photograph: Peter Flude\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

An official at one of the churches, who asked not to be named, said the appearance of carcasses had been unnerving. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that people thought supernatural things were going on,\u201d they said. \u201cIt was just the idea that someone was creeping around who had some clearly odd thoughts going on in their head.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the details of Lewis\u2019s case are unusual, animal welfare experts flag an increase in animal cruelty cases.<\/p>\n

A \u201ckindness index\u201d report released by the animal welfare charity RSPCA in the summer said the number of people who had witnessed animal cruelty in the previous 12 months was at an all-time high<\/a>. It said some had witnessed cruelty in real life but most was via social media.<\/p>\n

The charity believes social media has become a facilitator of cruelty with individuals and gangs using it to arrange abuse and share images and footage.<\/p>\n

One example was the case of two New Forest brothers, Kristen and Todd Cooper, who were jailed earlier this year for offences including animal cruelty. They harmed deer and hares, recording the abuse on a phone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There have been notable instances of animals being butchered in Hampshire to get a message across.<\/p>\n

Last year the remains of 50 hares and birds of prey were dumped outside a village shop in Broughton<\/a>. Residents believed it may have been a warning from a gang organising hare coursing \u2013 in which dogs are set upon the mammals \u2013 after it was challenged by a farmer. Some hare coursing is beamed live around the world and people bet on it.<\/p>\n

The wildlife presenter and campaigner Chris Packham has also been a target, finding dead crows hung next to the gate of his Hampshire home<\/a> after he campaigned for a ban on birds such as jackdaws, jays and magpies being freely shot.<\/p>\n

Such cases seem all the more egregious because, for the most part, people and animals rub along in the New Forest with ponies, donkeys and pigs roaming as they have done for centuries.<\/p>\n

Another New Forest village that has been targeted by someone leaving animal remains is Burley in the west of the forest. In May last year, a deer\u2019s head and upside down cross were found at a memorial stone<\/a> \u2013 an episode not connected to Lewis.<\/p>\n

Photographs of former Burley witch Sybil Leek, pinned in A Coven of Witches shop in Burley village. Photograph: Peter Flude\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Legend has it that Burley Beacon was a dragons\u2019 lair <\/a>and in the 1950s the village was the home of the \u201cwhite witch\u201d Sybil Leek, who wrote books on witchcraft and was famed for strolling around with her pet jackdaw.<\/p>\n

Leek emphasised that her witchcraft was \u201cquiet, natural and easy\u201d, explaining: \u201cIt\u2019s listening instead of talking. It\u2019s waiting for someone to say something to you. It\u2019s quiet, natural and easy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, the village has a string of shops selling books on witchcraft, crystals and offering bowls \u2013 as well as Sybil Leek tea towels and keyrings.<\/p>\n

Helen Sanderson, who works at the A Coven of Witches store, said people seemed to get confused between the gentle beliefs people such as Leek followed and the violent \u201cHollywood\u201d version of the occult.<\/p>\n

Self-described white witch Katrina Beaumont outside her shop, Cobwebs and Crystals, in Burley village. Photograph: Peter Flude\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Katrina Beaumont, who runs the Cobwebs and Crystals shop and says she is a white witch, occasionally gets \u201codd\u201d people coming in asking for voodoo dolls. \u201cBut for most people it\u2019s about healing, love of nature, peace. It\u2019s certainly not about sacrificing animals outside churches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elisa Allen, of the animal rights organisation Peta, said the case ought to prompt people to be kinder to animals.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe Dalai Lama said that the greatest religion of all is kindness, and this disrespectful act against churchgoers and the animals whose bodies Lewis used showed none. Lewis\u2019s behaviour should make us all reflect on the everyday lack of kindness and the disrespect people show to animals who are valued more dead than alive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The people of the New Forest are accustomed to curious goings-on. The woods and heaths of the national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-196160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}