THIEVES who stole pet ducks from a field near Cricklade have broken the hearts of two young children.

Poppy and Tiny were taken sometime between Monday evening and early Tuesday morning from their secure pen in a field just outside the town.

They belonged to Joanne Beasant’s children Oliver, seven, and Evie, three who are devastated at the theft.

“They are devastated. Oliver has mild autism so it is hard for him. He just ran upstairs and cried. Last night he cried himself to sleep,” she told the Swindon Advertiser. “They do not understand why anybody would take their ducks.”

White duck Poppy, who is thought to be an Aylesbury, and her little brown companion Tiny, were hatched at Evie’s pre-school and have been with the family since they were tiny ducklings.

They were last seen when they were tucked up for the night at the little smallholding.

“We put them away about half past six on the Monday evening securely in their pen,” said Joanne.

But early the following morning she and her father Bob arrived to find the break-in.

“When me and my dad and the children went down there, my dad saw all the barbed wired was cut on the gate going into the field.”

Then Joanne caught sight of the ducks’ pen and to her horror saw the mesh had been cut. The hole was big enough for a person to scramble through. Poppy and Tiny were gone.

“They were pets and we all loved them. They were so friendly,” she said. “They weren’t worth anything to us apart from the fact that we loved them.”

The family’s sheep and pigs were still there, but there were signs that the henhouse had been interfered with.

She wondered if someone had taken them thinking they were valuable and her partner Ashley was concerned that the thieves might have been watching for an opportunity to steal the pets.

It appeared there might have been two people because one would have needed to pass the ducks over the locked gate.

“We called the police and they were lovely.” But she said there was little for them to go on. She is appealing for anyone with information to call 101. “I’m not giving up fighting. I would hope that if anyone saw anything they will go to the police.”