Five ducks have been “brutally slaughtered”, with one being skewered with a garden fork and others attacked with bricks and a wheelbarrow.

Last Thursday Linda O’Mahony, of Petham Court in Crockenhill, Swanley, came home to find her pets killed.

The animal lover, who runs Chicken Rescue UK, said: “I let them out at 10am, I keep them in a reinforced cage so the foxes can’t get them at night but I let them out into an electric fenced area during the day.

“I got back from the gym at about 8.45pm, went over there and initially thought a fox had got them because I could just see all the bodies everywhere.

“But when I got closer I saw that they’d been brutally slaughtered and battered – as far as I can tell they were clubbed with tree branches and one was skewered with my garden fork.”

They also had electric fencing batteries, tree branches, bits of firewood and a wheelbarrow thrown at them.

Linda had the eldest duck, Chip, for nine years and the other four were rescued from a commercial egg farm and kept as they were too poorly to rehome.

“I just keep thinking they must have been absolutely terrified,” she said.

“Now I’m scared to bring birds round here again to re-home them in case it happens again.

“These weren’t rescue animals these were my personal pets, I can’t sleep I’m just so angry.

“The fact that someone thinks they can come in and mess about with your personal possessions full stop is bad but when it’s animals as well it’s just disgusting.”

Since posting about the ordeal online, two separate witnesses said they saw two boys jumping over the gate at about 5.30pm-5.45pm.

Police also attended the scene to carry out inquiries.

Linda is urging anyone who lives near Petham Court, by the railway bridge in St Georges Road, Glendale, or at the bottom of Pinks Hill to check their CCTV cameras.

If anyone has any information, please contact Linda via the rescue’s Facebook page.

Alternatively, contact Kent Police on 01622 604100 quoting 46/139327/23.