ANIMAL rights activists are being blamed after a farmer was left with thousands of pounds worth of damage to miles of fencing.

Police are investigating the incident at Thornton Steward, between Bedale and Leyburn, North Yorkshire, where Lewis Booton has 300 acres next to a wild boar farm targeted by campaigners last month.

The Animal Liberation Front has admitted in an entry on a US-run website that it pulled down fences, opened gates and made holes in enclosures allowing animals to escape from the Wensleydale Wild Boar site on the night of April 23.

An anonymous posting said: "By the time we had finished, large and numerous holes had been cut in the Boer (sic) enclosures, gates opened and fences pulled down.

"As we left we could see the dark shadows of Boer exploring their escape points. The Boer wars have come to the north of England."

It is believed campaigners targeted the boar farm again overnight on Thursday and Friday last week, when they also damaged fencing belonging to Mr Booton and two other farmers.

Worst hit was 59-year-old Mr Booton, who said he had eight miles of electric fencing methodically taken down, apparently with bolt-cutters.

Mr Booton, of Manor Farm, said yesterday: "I have been here for seven years and have had no trouble until now.

"I just cannot understand why they have targeted me for all this damage.

"I know I am next door to the boar farm, but I have nothing to do with it.

"We had some damage to fencing when they targeted the boar farm the first time, but it was not all that much.

"This time they have just gone overboard. I could cry.

"They have come to do as much damage as they could and there has definitely been more than one person involved.

"They have not just cut the fencing, they have trashed it, cutting it even when it was on the ground.

"It has been cut every 20 yards or so. They let three or four boar out and some of my neighbour's cows got into my fields.

"The fencing is high-tensile steel and very expensive. It's going to cost £3,000 to £4,000 to repair and it will probably take about a month.

"I dare not leave the farm now. It has upset everything."

Mr Booton has temporarily contained most of his 200 sheep and 60 cattle in one field.

He said: "I try to run a very environmentally friendly farm.

"These people want things to run wild and wonderful, and they do this to someone who is doing just what they want."

Tony Hill, who runs Wensleydale Wild Boar, declined to comment yesterday.