A retired thatcher who keeps pheasants, hens and guinea fowl appealed for help yesterday after attackers slaughtered more than 130 of his birds.
Great-grandfather Pip Handy found the mutilated birds strewn around a barn when he went to feed them at Hillborough Farm, near Welford-on-Avon.
The 72-year-old, who breeds pheasants for shooting, said thugs used a slash hook found on the farm to torture the birds, many of which he had hand-reared from birth.
Mr Handy kept about 250 birds on the farm, situated close to Stratford upon Avon, and said he was distraught by what had happened.
He said: "I'm devastated - some of those birds were really old pets that I've had for 14 years and I knew them by name.
"Whoever did this slaughtered mother guinea fowl with their babies and then went into one pheasant pen where there were about 80 and killed the lot.
"About 80 per cent were decapitated, it was just gruesome.
"When I went up there and saw the disgusting mess of slaughtered birds I thought I was going to die, I was that upset." Mr Handy kept the birds on a local farmer's land and during the shooting season would organise small groups for shoots.
Mr Handy's daughter, Trudi, said she believed more than one person had been responsible for the attack.
The 41-year-old said her family, who live in Grafton Lane, in the nearby village of Bidford-on-Avon, were still finding dead birds in the hedgerows days later.
Warwickshire Police want to trace a blue Citroen Berlingo van seen parked near the farm on Wednesday afternoon.
