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Destructive!? Moi?

Could be a Chupacabra but y’all are a long way from Mexico so probably not one of those.

Could be a Bureaucrat. Larcenous, destructive, persistent in the damage done, and interferes with something productive. I understand you have a bunch of them over there.

Subotai Bahadur

Raccoons would do that…we have to keep a bungie cord tight over our garbage bin to keep them out.

Maybe it’s your neighbors who are feeding their chickens with your food?

Quasimodo: except, the neighbors would most likely have taken the 20-lb bag of pellets with them. . .

In Britain, it can really only be a fox or a badger. There just aren’t that many large mammals left here.

Or it could be emergent collaborative behavior of smaller mammals. Perhaps a horde of hares or hedgehogs, or even a large gang of voles.

So no one accepting my previous pissed off the elves diagnosis Eh?

You know they can take on other forms

My niece did one and found out we are related to John Howland, indentured servant on the Mayflower, he’s the turkey gentleman that fell overboard and had to be rescued. My mother’s side is practically pure New England Yankee, Chases, Grahams and Dexter’s. The other side…Irish and Newfie.

I love wildlife cams. My money is on Br’er Badger.

You have boars and large deer that are wandering around… maybe it could be one of those mammals.
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If you don’t mind wikipedia, here’s a list which should prompt good suggestions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_of_Great_Britain

There is a herd of wild boar in our vicinity, but they hang out in woodland. Ditto deer. We are on the plain and treeless. So no squirrels. Hedges support stoats and weasels. A few mink (not native; fur farm escapees and very destructive). Cats and dogs, naturally.

Whatever it is is tearing the bags to shreds. And, no…he didn’t visit last night. I don’t think I left enough chicken food in the bin to make it worth his while to claw it open.

Is ‘wild boar’ a new euphemism for ‘feral hog’? Those suckers get scary big

It has to be something large/strong enough to get in the bin and smart enough to work out how and perhaps an opposing thumb. Although dogs will develop a taste for grain. One of our Setters would sneak across the road and eat the neighbor’s sweet mash. No one could figure it out until he was caught red-handed, er red-snout, in the barrel.

My hunch is indeed raccoons. I’ve yet to eat a single ripe apricot from our 6 yr old tree….just a pile of pits neatly stacked next to the tree….mocking me.

@JC Collins…boy do they ever! A vlogger in Oklahoma recently shot a huge boar with 6″ tusks. IIRC wild boar is related to domestic pigs but is a subspecies and is said to be the most widely distributed mammal on the planet.

Whereas feral hogs are escaped domestic pigs. These guys like a challenge.

No raccoons in the UK, unless it’s a fur-farm escapee. I don’t think we have raccoon fur farms, though.

@Stoaty Really? I just assumed (and you know how that goes) that the buggers are everywhere. Alrighty then… badger it be.

Not even a clever and determined animal can defeat carabiners. Drill a 3/8″ hole at both ends of the lid, through the lid and the bucket lip below. Slip a carabiner through the holes. At best the critter will be able to get the lid up an inch, but a little bit of wood stuck through the ‘biner’s loop will lock it down tight. Even the joke quality carabiners sold as key-rings will probably do the job. Those hefty spring-loaded clamps that carpenters like will probably work too, though you might have to bend the ends a little to get under the bucket lip.

Animal Cam Pool: I say it’s a were-rabbit. This is England after all.