Warning: This article contains distressing images and details
Five sheep of a rare breed have been slaughtered near Christchurch, with their owner arriving to find just their insides and unborn lambs left behind.
Daniel Wheeler says there were only 35 Campbell Island ewes left in the world. The number now sits at 30.
However, he's more upset at losing the unborn lambs which would have helped keep the population growing.
Those responsible would have had to put in a lot of effort to kill the sheep as there was no direct vehicle access to the site, which was locked by three separate gates.
Wheeler arrived at the site, at the Styx Mill Nature Reserve at Northwood, Christchurch, on Saturday to find just the heads and dead, unborn lambs scattered in a pen into which the thieves had rounded them up.
He believes the killing was an opportunistic crime to get some meat on the table, but he wouldn't expect it to taste any good.
"It would be bloody awful," he told the Herald today. "Heavily pregnant ewes that are at the end of the winter in reasonably poor condition. It would be quite lean, would be mutton and slow cooking only."
In a Facebook post not long after the grisly discovery, Wheeler said the loss of five was "quite significant".
Five piles of intestines, dead lambs and a knife case were all that was left at the scene on Styx Mill Rd. Photo/Daniel Wheeler
"What is particularly gutting is that there are (were) only 35 Campbell Island ewes left in existence, so the loss of five is quite significant.
"These ewes have also been treated with pre-lamb animal health treatments which makes the meat unsafe for consumption."
He said police were limited in what they could do to help so he was hoping publicity - both social media and media - would help flush out those responsible.
"There's not a lot the police can do. There's no evidence for them to collect, really. We've taken DNA samples and taken tissue samples ... but there's no other leads so we really do rely on someone being dobbed in, it's as simple as that. Police aren't going to find fingerprints there."
He said the fact the heads were taken was unusual and would have made carrying them out even more difficult. "That puzzles me as to why they did that."
These twin lambs were cut from a heavily pregnant, and rare, Campbell Island ewe sometime between Monday and Saturday on private property on Styx Mill Rd, Christchurch. Photo/Daniel Wheeler
He was surprised, and thankful, for the support his post has had, realising that it would have been quite confronting for some people.
"I had a long think before putting the photos up but then thought 'No, this is what I was confronted with' and I'm shocked that it's been shared so often and have had quite a few messages."
The sheep were farmed on Campbell Island during the early 1890s before the farm was abandoned in the early 1930s.
"What sheep were on the island were left to go wild and they were our biggest feral sheep flock at one stage, with about 4500 at its peak. They evolved really quickly. And then what was then the Department of Conservation decided in the early 70s they were doing too much damage to the flora and fauna and shot them out.
"Ag Research managed to rescue 14 of them and brought them back to New Zealand."
The population grew to about 50, when Wheeler bought the sheep off Ag Research in 2004.
"It wasn't a huge number, just a small flock, just enough to keep the breed alive. I keep the numbers around the 40 mark, 35 is the least I've had for quite a while."
He said there was a "substantial reward" on offer for the successful identification and conviction of the thieves. He urged anyone with information to contact him or police.
This knife case was also left at the scene. Photo/Daniel Wheeler
