Eleven piglets stolen from Surrey Docks Farm on Friday night will die if they are not found in the next 24 hours, staff fear.
The two-week-old piglets need round-the-clock feeding from their mothers or they will struggle to survive.
The Oxford Sandy Black piglets have been a popular attractions at the community farm on Rotherhithe Street.
Staff were devastated to find on Saturday morning that they had been snatched from the farm’s two sows Winnie and Marmalade in the dead of the night.
Farm manager Gemma Hooper, 33, last saw them when she locked up the farm at 7pm on Friday, 14 September, and they were gone when it reopened at 8am the following morning.
There were no signs of forced entry or a break-in, and nothing had been picked up on farm’s CCTV cameras.
Rotherhithe Street is a quiet, but staff are eager for anyone that saw anything on Friday night to get in touch and are convinced that people must have heard eleven squealing piglets.
The fact that whoever snatched the piglets avoid the main routes in and out of the farm to evade capture on the CCTV and did not nab all of them – leaving another eleven piglets behind – has puzzled staff who have said whoever carried out the raid even left the place tidying and shut things up before heading off.
According to Rachel Smith, 46, one of the weekend managers attempts to canvass witnesses from the nearby flats have so far been fruitless.
“We do have CCTV but unfortunately not on the pig pens, but the police are doing a full investigation.
“It’s difficult to speculate who they were, but we are just so desperate to find them. Unless, whoever stole them knows how to take care of them, without their mothers feeding them they will die.
“We are absolutely devastated here and have had loads of support on social media from the local community. ”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the farm at manager@surreydocksfarm.org.uk or police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting crime reference 3153/15SEP18.