AN ANIMAL rescue charity was left devastated today after vandals smashed their way through the organisation's Foxhall compound, leaving a trail of destruction.

AN ANIMAL rescue charity was left devastated today after vandals smashed their way through the organisation's Foxhall compound, leaving a trail of destruction.

The thugs struck at the old USAF radio station in Foxhall Road overnight on Saturday, overturning and badly damaging a caravan and destroying a shed used to house sick and injured animals.

Luckily all the animals cared for by the Ipswich Wildlife Care and Rescue Centre at the site had been moved only days earlier.

Today a furious Alec Suttonwood, who runs the centre, said: “You just wonder what these people get out of it. They must lead very sad lives.”

Mr Suttonwood was in the process of moving the animal rescue charity away from the Foxhall site, possibly to a new location in Belstead, after a problem with access but he hadn't finished the move before the vandals struck.

He had relocated the hedgehogs, fox cubs and doves which had been housed there but had not yet moved the shed and the caravan.

The vandals are thought to have gained access to the compound by cutting a hole in a perimeter fence and once inside they used a pole to overturn the caravan.

Mr Suttonwood, of Montgomery Road, Ipswich, also believes they used poles to smash the shed into small pieces.

He said: “When I arrived I saw the caravan was on its side. There was broken glass everywhere.

“There was a gas bottle they had tried to turn on. It looks like they had tried to light it.

“I found my shed not only knocked over but they've actually taken the time to smash every panel.

“If there had been animals there they could have been hurt. All the cages are totally smashed.”