Cattle beast slaughtered cruelly on roadside in 'primitive killing'

A cattle beast believed to have been slaughtered on the side of the road was reported to police. Photo / File

A cattle beast is believed to have been butchered while still alive on the roadside of a Paengaroa farm in a "disgusting" case of animal cruelty.

Paengaroa resident Deborah Moore was driving to work about 8.30am yesterday when she noticed a strange sight on the side of Allport Rd.

"I thought 'that's not right', so I backed up and had a look.

"It was sawn in half. They'd taken the guts out. You couldn't even identify it whether it was a bull or a cow."

Moore said she was horrified at the find and she believed the cow had been butchered while it was still alive. She said its throat had not been slit and it had not been bled out prior to the butchering.

"It's absolutely and totally cruel. The cow was still warm when I got there," she said.

"I want people to know what kind of a**holes are out there. That's just plain disgusting."

Moore said the beast's remains were on the roadside while its guts were dumped in a paddock a few metres away. She said it had been dragged through a fence with a weighted strop tied around its legs.

She said a beast like this one could have been worth $12,000 to $15,000.

Moore lives on the same road but did not know who the owner was.

She tried a few driveways in the area in an attempt to find and inform the owners but was unsuccessful.

So she called the police.

"I'm just so angry and disgusted that somebody would have the audacity to have do that to someone else's property."

Moore said the slaughter looked like a "primitive killing".

Police told Moore she was the second person to report the killing.

A police media spokeswoman confirmed there were two reports of the carcass yesterday morning .

When asked whether police were aware of other similar incidents, or what the beast is believed to have been worth, the spokeswoman said police could not provide any more information.

Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president Darryl Jensen could not be reached for comment.