Lamb rustler strikes in Mangaroa Valley

‘‘I don't know why anyone would do it, you wouldn't do it for their meat, maybe they were taken as pets for kids.’’

Five newborn lambs have been stolen from an Upper Hutt property, prompting an appeal for them to be returned to their mothers.

‘‘They’ll be just like a baby,’’ owner Barbara Kessell said, at her home in the Mangaroa Valley.

‘‘The only way they [the thieves] will be able to look after them will be using milk powder and bottle feeding them and they’ll have to do that for six to eight weeks, than you can wean them.’’

A week old lamb and two sets of three-day-old twins were taken off Kessell’s property on Parkes Line Rd between last Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

‘‘At about 10.30pm the dogs started barking. I went out on the deck but I couldn’t see or hear anything.’’

Her husband, Dennis, went to feed out and put the horses out about 8.30am and the ewes were bleating and crying, she said.

‘‘It’s a shock and I’m worried for them.

‘‘Are they being fed, are they being looked after?

‘‘We don’t know whether they’re going to live or die and we’d just prefer they were back with their mothers.

‘‘The ewes are full of milk too, poor things. They’ll cope but it can’t be pleasant.

‘‘I’d just like the people who stole them to bring them back and they can do that the same way as they took them if they like.’’

The Kessells have been on their property for 39 years and never experienced stock theft.

They have less than a dozen sheep on their four hectare block and the stolen lambs were the first of the season.

‘‘I don’t know why anyone would do it, you wouldn’t do it for their meat, maybe they were taken as pets for kids.’’

Two fences and a trotting track separate the sheep paddock from the road.

‘‘I can only think there were more than one of them doing it and they must have had a car.

‘‘I just don’t know what happened, maybe the ewes had the lambs in the shed otherwise they’d have had to chase them. It’s very muddy too.

Anyone with information should contact the Hutt Valley police on 04 527 2300.