Orphan lambs stolen

A distraught shepherdess has launched an appeal after three orphaned lambs were stolen from her hillside farm.

And Claire Crowther warned the rogue thieves the six-week-old lambs had been injected with a drug which could have adverse effects on their captors. 

Three of the lambs were stolen between Saturday night and Sunday morning from her farm off the Holmfirth Road at Greenfield, Saddleworth. 

Claire said: “I believe it's because they were so friendly in nature, because they've been reared from babies and they came to the gate where they get fed every single morning. 

“Their identification tags have been ripped out of their ears and thrown onto their footpath. We found a fourth lamb with a really badly injured ear, torn apart as the thieves were trying to attempt to take its identification tag out.  

“The lambs had ivermectin injections, which means they're not worth eating meat. The drug is toxic and paralyzes and kills targeted parasites by interfering with their nerve and muscle functions. 

“But it means if someone did want to eat them, they could be very poorly themselves.” 

She added: "They've been getting fed, but now they've had milk and things taken away from them they won’t survive on their own. 

“Why would people want to steal very young lambs?  I'm not sure whether they wanted to take them for pets but the way that they've taken the tags out, that seems like it's more sinister, really.  

““And they’ve been docked so do they not have breeding value to anyone?"