Five rare-breed sheep have been slaughtered while they grazed on a village field in Lincolnshire.
The incident happened over the weekend (5 February). Police have food blood in a field at Old Leake near Boston which suggest the Dartmoor sheep were slaughtered.
They were all rams - three stock tups, two of which were called Lester and Larry who had been reared on the farm, and another called Donkey Hill.
The animals belonged to Jenny and Graham Hampstead who have bred the native sheep for more than 30 years.
Mrs Hampstead told the Lincolnshire Live: "The sheep were winter grazing in a field on the other side of the village with three others.
"My husband shepherded them at about 4pm on Saturday, February 4 and everything was fine.
"The next day, a lady who lives by the grass phoned to ask if we had brought some home as there were five missing, with only three remaining in the field.
"We saw the electric fence had been moved and horrifically we discovered a lot of blood in the field which tells us they had been slaughtered."
'Be extra vigilant
It is thought the carcasses were moved over a dyke and possibly into a vehicle parked on the roadside.
PCSO David Russell from Boston Neighbourhood Policing Team said: "There have been two separate reports of sheep being stolen from fields in the rural areas surrounding Boston.
"Please be extra vigilant if you have sheep in fields and please report any suspicious activity around fields containing sheep to our non emergency number 101."
Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting incident 331 of February 5.
