Patea sheep found mutilated on golf course

Six sheep have been found mutilated on Patea Golf Course and the owner says "someone must be covered in blood".

Bevan Dobson keeps sheep on the Patea Golf Club in a lease arrangement and on Friday it was discovered six had been mutilated.

They had their throats cut, some decapitated and others with other body parts cut off.

Mr Dobson has had sheep stolen for meat before but said this time nothing had been taken.

"This is just murdering I suppose," he said.

"There was one that had about 15 big slash marks.

"Usually people just flog them for meat but they've just mutilated these six. They've obviously been penned up and chased around."

He said there was a half acre pen where the sheep were put when the course was in use and he believed the offenders had locked them in there before taking to them with a knife.

"They must've known what to do," he said.

"They took the whole front shoulder off one and you have to know what you're doing to do that."

Mr Dobson said police had been out on Friday afternoon to take photos.

"Someone must be covered in blood or something," he said.

"Someone could say 'hey, my mate turned up last night covered in blood'."

Mr Dobson believed it would have happened overnight on Thursday.