County Derry Post

Animal protection chiefs have slammed sickos who skinned a sheep and cut the head off a cow in north Derry.

  By Connla Young 

Connla@derrypost.com

 

Picturesque Banagher Forest looked more like a scene from a slaughter house this week after up to a dozen dead lambs were dumped at a road side.

 

The sickening scene was compounded by a skinned ewe which was left to rot at the roadside along with the other animals.

 

Some of the dead lambs appeared to have hideous defects including multiple limbs and deformed heads.

 

The unfortunate ewe appears to have been gutted before it was abandoned with its insides clearly visible.

 It is not known how the animal died or if it was alive before having its skin stripped from its flesh.

It is understood a tag left on one of the sheep could be used to identify the owner.

 

Several miles away on the scenic slopes of Benbradagh walkers were horrified to find a cow’s severed thrown into a small drain at the side of the road.

 

The decapitated cow appears to have been shot twice in the head.

 

David Wilson from the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals slammed those behind both incidents.

 

“We would encourage the public that if they see anything suspicious to talk to us, the police or anyone in authority and get this sort of thing stopped. You would come across dumped animals from time to time but to skin a sheep, I don’t know why anybody would do anything like that, I can’t work that out.

 “One of the problems in relation to the dumping of the animals is that the law on the disposal has been tightened up a bit and there’s a cost involved in disposing of remains and that’s why more animals are being dumped.”