A FUMING farmer nearly got on the phone to Worcester MP Mike Foster after his prize-winning hens were savagely killed in what is believed to have been a fox attack.

Charlie Bull returned home to find the mutilated bodies of 19 of his Light Sussex hens strewn across his farm.

And his first thought was to send the bill to Mr Foster, who introduced the 1997 bill which led to the hunting ban.

"It looked quite gory up there," said the 67-year-old, of Old Turnpike Road in Crowle, near Worcester. "What trauma those hens must have gone through is frightening.

However, Mr Foster said he was staggered with the suggestion that he should stump up the cash.

"Foxes kill chickens - we've always accepted that," he said.

He said that as the hunting season had not started, this fox would not have been killed by the hounds anyway.