Two farmers worry for their farm animals’ safety after finding one of their ewes had been attacked earlier this week.

At 5.30pm on Sunday, April 8, Mike and Sam Bottone-Gordon were doing their second check of the day on their sheep when they discovered one of their “happiest” ewes lying down with her lamb, both covered in blood in their Churchstow field.

They called the vet, and brought both sheep to the lambing pens to comfort and settle them down. After cleaning them up and finding it was only the ewe who was bitten, the vet gave her antibiotics and confirmed that she had five large, half-moon shaped puncture wounds on her hindquarters-much larger than the jaws of a fox or a badger.

Though she is in stable condition now, Mike and Samuel have to physically get her to stand, and are unsure if the shock and fear will affect her and her milk in the future.

They’ve now turned their attention to how the animal that attacked the ewe could have entered the field, as the gate is chained and locked and the field is lined with a six-foot hedge. They speculate that the only way would have been from crawling under the gate. The bite marks on the ewe indicate that of a large dog, so they are asking the public if anyone has seen or knows one that has come home with its face covered in blood.

A few of their pheasants have been killed from attacks this year as well, but it is unclear whether they are connected.

If anyone has any information regarding the incident please call Mike at 07863 563056.