RABBITS, chickens and guinea pigs at a Hillingdon animal sanctuary have again fell victim to hungry foxes following a break-in this weekend.

Pets Corner, in Petworth Gardens was vandalised overnight on Saturday, December 13.

The thieves are believed to have broken in through the front gate, cut the fence to the pens which let the birds, rabbits, chickens, turkeys and guinea pigs free.

It is then thought foxes were able to get in and feast on the vulnerable animals, who are cared for by 71-year-old Stan Atkins.

Stan was walking his dog in Pole Hill Park on Sunday morning at around 8.15am and heard the pets making loud noises.

It was when he walked towards the sanctuary he realised it had been broken into and that around 12 chickens and other animals had been killed after being eaten by the foxes.

This is not the first time the sanctuary has been broken into. It has been targeted on a number of occasions and the place has been vandalised.

On one occasion, the pot belly pig Eddie was set alight and left badly burnt.

Julia Fitzgerald of the Hillingdon Business Forum, has set up a number of volunteers to help out at the centre after hearing about the problems Stan encounters.

Stan mostly relies on charitable funding to keep the centre going and he spends most of his day single handedly looking after the pets.

On Thursday, there is going to be a grand re-opening of Pets Corner, fresh with new security gates with anti-climb paint on them to stop vandals from climbing over.