A PETERSFIELD couple out for a pleasant walk at Queen Elizabeth Country Park were left distraught after finding six dead foxes.

Steve Budd and his wife, of Upper Heyshott, were walking from Buriton along the new cycle path to the park on January 7, but as they passed the layby on the southbound carriageway of the A3 just before the park Steve saw the dead foxes.

He said: “They were just over the fence dividing the layby from the cycle path – there were no gunshot wounds or obvious signs of death. They had probably been poisoned and dumped. It was shocking, not nice at all, you shouldn’t treat animals like that. I was nearly in tears and couldn’t sleep that night.” East Hampshire District Council officers removed the carcasses. A spokesman said: “They may have been killed as pest control and then dumped. It’s unlikely we will investigate the deaths.