The farming property of a well-known Hawke's Bay man is being investigated by the SPCA following a complaint stock had been neglected and left to die on the 200ha rural station.
Napier SPCA manager Bruce Wills confirmed staff had visited a property on Crownthorpe Rd, northwest of Hastings on Monday and Tuesday. They found 28 sheep had died and many others had been caught up in blackberry.
"We do not have definitive cause of death for the sheep but we are assuming that at least some of them were as a direct result of being caught in the blackberry for long periods.
"The majority of the sheep were in reasonable condition. The issues were not a lack of food but that unshorn sheep were allowed to graze in paddocks thick with blackberry."
The "Longdale" property was owned by Andrew Ormond who is also the deputy master of the Hawke's Bay Hunt Club.