At 16.45 Sunday afternoon Christine phoned to inform me that she and her husband Bill had discovered a fresh mutilated lamb and it had similar holes and cuts as the others before it. I asked Bill to mark the ground location so a soil sample could be taken and to secure the lamb carcass in a barn, as I could not view the animal until Monday morning. I informed David Cayton that another animal had been discovered, David was on holiday in North Wales at the time but decided to travel down to Shrewsbury to accompany me to Christine's and Bill’s farm. David and I arrived at 10.30 as arranged to view the animal. The lamb had been discovered at 16.30 in the afternoon it was a 3-week-old Texel Plum Cross. There were two puncture marks on the neck, the puncture holes were 2 to 3 mm in diameter and 23 mm apart. Both eyes were missing; the right ear was cut clean from the skull. The reproductive organs and rectum were missing and a large cavity in the chest area with all internal organs removed. There was also a 23 mm circular hole in the lower left thigh, (see photo below) this circular hole had no stepped edges that would indicate it had been caused by a scalpel, instead it was very smooth and precise with a peculiar ridged edge, the hole area also looked like it had been cleaned before the procedure had taken place. An examination of the ground where the animal was found was conducted and grass/soil samples taken, an examination of the surrounding area was also conducted. The lamb’s red ear tag was still lying in the same spot as the animal was found; the tag must have been pulled off from the severed ear, which was missing.

The field were the animal was discovered is also the same field many other mutilated animals had been discovered over the past 3 years. I asked Christine if their dogs had been barking in the night like before, she said that the dogs had actually got out, she and Bill caught them and put them back in the house but did not see or hear anything unusual at the time. I phoned Bill and Christine to enquire if it was convenient to conduct a sky watch that night on the fields above their farm. Christine informed me that there was no problem and she told me that Bill had found some strange marks in the field above the main animal mutilation site last Sunday. She offered to get Bill to show them to me when I called. We arrived at 19.50 with a colleague and Bill took us up to the field with the strange markings in it, it was right at the top of Ashton Hill over looking the main mutilation site. The main markings consisted of three semicircles, one on it’s own and two over lapping, there were also a number of part radius markings. The diameter of the semicircles were between 5 and 6.5 metres with a inner circle giving the impression of a band which was 0.220 mm wide and consistent overall. I took a soil sample from 400 mm above the semicircle edge and one with in the semicircle band. The control sample was soft and moist but the same taken from the semicircle border was like concrete, I had to lean on the trowel to penetrate the ground and then I could only break a chunk off. The grass inside the band area was also darker and dying. I asked the farmer if he had seen anything like it on any of the other fields and he said no, so I asked him had he got any ideas what might of made the markings. The only thing he could think of that might be responsible was the fertiliser spray from the tractor spray dispenser, which he sprayed on to the field last year. The fertiliser is sprayed from a spinning spray head that rotates spraying the liquid fertiliser in a circular motion on to the ground. I would think it very difficult to see how a spray from the tractor could only effect the ground in a semicircle design and also how could this create a consistent band with also in a semicircle design.

The end of the tongue had been removed and cut diagonally, (see photo below) there was still freshly chewed grass in the animal’s mouth, photographs were taken and a fleece sample removed for analysis.

Christine and Bill are still having animals mutilated but on a much smaller scale, one year they also found a badger mutilated in the same way as described above, this shocked Bill as he knew how savage badgers can be and that it was not killed by any fox or a person for that matter.

Investigations Continuing