Sick thieves butcher the hind legs off ten LIVE sheep and leave them to die in agony

• Raiders have struck four times in the past fortnight
• The legs were removed at the hip and the sheep were then left to die 
• Thieves targeted rare breeds and animals under two years old

Thieves cut the legs off ten sheep while they were still alive to sell them for meat. 

The hind legs of the animals - including several pregnant ewes and rare breeds - were removed at the hip and the sheep were then left to die.

Farmer William Perkins, who discovered the carcasses in his fields, said the raiders were 'inhuman' to butcher the sheep while they were still alive.

He said the limbs were taken off with great skill and believes they have been sold for meat.

The thieves only targeted the animals under two years old, as older sheep are classed as mutton.

Police have warned farmers near Stockport to be vigilant against repeat raids.

Mr Perkins, 65, who runs Lion House Farm, in nearby Cheadle Hulme, has been left devastated by the four night-time attacks in the past fortnight.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2232698/Thieves-butcher-pregnant-sheep-alive-Cheadle-Hulme-farm-raids.html#ixzz2CCfEC5wl

'Beast of Bont returns' as 20 sheep found massacred

The mutilated carcasses were torn to shreds and scattered across moorland near to the Devil's Bridge in the Cambrian Mountains near Aberystwyth, west Wales.

The area has long been linked to the so-called “Beast of Bont”, a big cat believed by some to have been on the loose for decades.

Locals have reported sighting of an unknown creature since the 1970s, and now fear the predator could have struck again.

Mark Davey, 43, discovered the latest "sickening" scene and insists the attacker could not have been a fox or a dog.

He said: "The whole area just stank of dead animals and was quite sickening. I could see that the inside of the animals had been ripped out and body parts were lying all around.

"I thought it could have been foxes or badgers but it was just the increasing number of dead sheep that started the alarm bells ringing in my head.

"As we walked further we saw several more sheep scattered closely together, again as though some large animal had attacked them.

"We were getting quite scared and wondered what the hell was doing this."

Mark and his partner Annette, 40, were walking down a valley at Devil's Bridge when they began stumbling across the sheep carcasses.

They found two big groups of mutilated sheep and lambs in fields about two miles apart. Most had been stripped bare - leaving just mounds of wool and bones.

Mark, from Borth, Ceredigion, said: "After about an hour of walking in remote land, quite high up on the mountains, we found a couple of dead sheep.

"As we walked further and higher we came to some woods and again we found several more dead sheep.

"Each time we saw them we thought that something had quite clearly attacked them because they looked like they had been ripped apart.

"It was a very strange feeling when we saw the sheep because some of them were lambs with just half of their bodies, or just the rear of the back legs left on the field.

"I could also see a small lamb which looked to me as if it had been carefully placed in the corner of some building ruins.

"This one was untouched but it appeared that it had been put there for a reason - maybe to come back to it later."

Rumours of the elusive beast have circulated in the area since the 1970s with numerous sightings of a “puma-like creature”.

Read on:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9267032/Beast-of-Bont-returns-as-20-sheep-found-massacred.html