Little Acorns Nursery broken into with chickens and ducks killed as community helps fund new CCTV

Little Acorns Nursery in Wickham was broken into on Tuesday, July 2, with nursery staff and children left devastated as chickens and ducks were killed, while others were pelted with nuts and bolts. A group of youths were seen at the nursery that night in what was the second break-in in the past fortnight.

The nursery is owned and run by Growing Places, a not-for-profit community childcare centre that has branches in Havant, Waterlooville and Fareham. All of which utilise Little Acorns which is a three acre small holding housing, chickens, ducks, goats and sheep.

Carlie Powell, head of nurseries at Growing Places, said: “Children from all five of our nurseries go to visit Little Acorns everyday. They care for the animals, they plant they grow, it’s like a real safe haven for them.

“Then on Tuesday night we had a call from some local people saying they had seen seven or eight young lads running away from the land. One of our colleagues went straight over there and found that two of the chickens were dead and the others had had nuts and bolts fired at them. They had wounds on their body and faces and they were bleeding. Some of the pens were destroyed as well. It was really upsetting.”

“It is one thing for their to be a break-in, you expect that to a certain extent, but the damage caused and for animals to be killed, I never considered that people would ever do that.”

It is an incident that understandably left the children upset. Carlie said: “The children love the animals, they are devastated that Oreo, one of the chickens, has been killed because they named Oreo. They have a real connection with the animals.”

This was not the first break-in at Little Acorns. Carlie explained that two weeks ago there was a similar break-in but that time only property was destroyed. Disposable barbecues were used and the vandals got their hands on woodworking tools which they used to leave the place in a mess

After the first incident the nursery set about starting a fundraiser to help install CCTV. However, following the recent shocking break-in the nursery set up a GoFundMe page in the hope they could get it set up as soon as possible. In a matter of days they have already exceeded their target as the local community rallied round to support them.

Carlie said: “A lot of the donations have come from our parents, our volunteers and the local community. The support has been overwhelming, we are very thankful. For something so devastating, to see the donations come in the next day was so heart-warming.

“We are going to get CCTV and look at more secure pens and holdings as we have sheep and goats, which thankfully so far have been untouched.”

Police are currently investigating the break-in and have asked for anyone with any information to contact them. A Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary spokesperson said: “We can confirm we have received a report of an incident at Little Acorns nursery on Wayles Lane, Knowle.

“It was reported that between 4pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday 2 July a group of youths were seen on site at the nursery, near to the chicken and duck cages. Two chickens and four ducks have died, and a number of duck eggs have been stolen. If anyone has any information, please contact 101 with reference 44240280721.”

The Growing places GoFundMe page can be found here.