Hundreds of pig ears found dumped in ditch - four months after thousands of frozen chicken pieces

Hundreds of pig ears have been found dumped in a ditch - puzzling council officers who are now investigating it as flytipping.

More than 60 heavy-duty orange net bags of the cuts were discovered in Radwell near the Hertfordshire-Bedfordshire border on 4 January.

The find, made near the A507 junction on Newnham Road, is the second odd flytip in just four months - after hundreds of kilograms of frozen chicken pieces were found in the village of Offley in September.

Jeanette Thompson, legal and community service director at North Hertfordshire Council, said: “We treat fly-tipping very seriously, and not only is it disgusting to see, but animal body parts will create a horrific smell and attract vermin.

“This looks like another commercial case of fly-tipping, with pigs’ ears commonly used as a natural dog treat.

"What the offender might not have realised is that the inside of the ears are tattooed, quite literally to help identify livestock.

"So we are working with the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales (NFU) and other authorities and have a good chance of tracing the history."

The council appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

It is thought that some of the bags may have been in the ditch from 31 December.

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