Farmer 'shocked' after ears sliced-off sheep in sick knife attack

A Newry man has called for the public's assistance following a knife attack in which a number of sheep have been stabbed and had their ears cut off.

Ruairi McCartney posted the shocking images to Facebook and explained that the incident happened at his father's farm in Ballyholland on the Temple Hill Road in Newry.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, McCartney explained that they first learned of the attack after his father was contacted by a neighbour on Wednesday morning telling him that his sheep appeared to be injured or killed.

"There was only ten lambs [sic] in the field, three were dead this morning, three have been put down, and another two were injured," he said.

"Somebody left the house with a very sharp knife with the intention of hurting animals."

Mr McCartney explained that his father is "in shock" about the incident.

"I suppose if you could find a reason why this has happened, or if there was an argument. But when something happens like this out of the blue it is hard to comprehend."

His father will continue to tend to the remaining sheep in the herd, but there is a possibility that they will be moved to another location.

Mr McCarthy also said that this was not the first time this has happened, and that he was alerted to a similar incident in the Ballyholland area a few weeks ago.

"I remember that I saw that something had happened on the way up to the field. I looked online and it was sheep killed, sheep brutally killed, which is something similar to what has happened. The people involved in that have actually been in contact to say that four of their sheep had their ears cut off as well," he said.

"They had been told that it was thought it might be a dog attack, but the farmer was pretty adamant that someone had sliced the ears off the sheep."

The PSNI for the Newry & Mourne district have appealed for anyone with information about the "brutal and cruel attack" to come forward.

They have said on their Facebook page that the incident took place sometime between 8pm on Tuesday night and 8am on Wednesday morning.

Anyone with information about the incident can contact police on the non-emergency number 101 quoting crime reference number 188 of 05/07/2017.