A young calf which wandered from a Kerikeri lifestyle block on to another property was beaten to death with a piece of timber in front of two women onlookers.
Kerikeri police said one of the women had called the calf's owner when she found the animal had come on to her
property last Wednesday.
Sergeant Peter Masters said a man arrived and started to beat the Friesian-Jersey cross calf.
Three or four blows were delivered in front of the two women, he said, before the calf, aged about four months, collapsed. After several more blows to the calf's head the animal died, Mr Masters said. Police were then called.
A man is expected to appear in the Kaikohe District Court today to face a charge laid under the Animal Welfare Act of wilfully ill-treating an animal.
Bay of Islands SPCA inspector Jim Boyd said: "That calf would have suffered greatly in the time before the final blow was delivered."
- NZPA
