Butchered deer carcasses found dumped in Hastings field

Emma Osborne was walking her dog along the track which extends St Helen’s Park Road in St Helen’s Wood, at about 9am on Wednesday morning (October 28).

She said her dog disappeared before she found her just inside the horse paddock fence ‘looking at the carcass of a dead deer’.

Emma said it looked like the deer had a substantial back injury.

She then found the second carcass – which she described as being in a worse condition – a few metres along the track.

Emma said: “It was pretty shocking and upsetting, and obvious that it had been dumped as deer are not native in those woods.

“It was such a distressing discovery and violating on so many levels – to the deer and to the woods which are normally a safe and enjoyable space for so many people in these difficult times.”

Suspecting the carcasses had been dumped illegally by people butchering deer to sell their meat, Emma reported the incident to the police who said they were aware.

On Monday (November 2), a spokesman for Sussex Police said: “Sussex Police received a number of reports about two dead deer discovered in a field at St Helen’s Wood, Hastings, on Wednesday morning (October 28).

“The carcasses appear to have been butchered, but is not known how they came to be at the location. Anyone with information is asked to report online or call 101 quoting serial 365 of 28/10.”