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Flag Fen: Rare sheep killed in two savage attacks
STRUGGLING heritage site Flag Fen has been hit with more woes after five of its rare sheep were viciously killed.
STRUGGLING heritage site Flag Fen has been hit with more woes after five of its rare sheep were viciously killed.The deaths leave just five of the historic breed remaining at the Bronze Age site on The Droveway, Northey Road in Peterborough.
It is believed that dogs allowed to run free at the site could be to blame for two savage attacks.
The first attack was discovered by park manager James Beatty when he arrived at the site at 9am on December 29 to find two of the Soay breed - which are similar to the type reared by Bronze Age villagers at Flag Fen - had been killed.
His misery was compounded on January 2 when Mr Beatty arrived at 9am to find another three sheep had been killed and another had been injured.
He said: "It's horrific that dogs are allowed to run free in the country. It's just ignorance.
"It was devastating for me to find them, but the volunteers came in and we are like a family, so I didn't feel like I was carrying the burden all on my own."
Mr Beatty, who is running the site after the departure of former manager Neil Hart in October, said the surviving sheep had one of its legs was mauled.
The incidents bring the total of attacks at the site to five in just 12 months.
Last March, seven sheep were slaughtered and a further 10 injured at the site. There was then another attack in November, when two of the rare flock were killed.
Flag Fen has recently faced financial worries, with a lack of funding and its long term future is uncertain.
However, the site could come under the control of Peterborough City Council as part of the Culture and Leisure Trust, which is due to be created in April.
Mr Beatty said: "This is the worst year for attacks on the sheep and we've had our other problems.
"We've had to take extra precautions. I lock them up every night and I'll have to do that for the foreseeable future.
"I'm 99 per cent certain that it was dogs who have killed them.
"A fox would attack a young lamb, but not a fully-grown sheep.
"We were worrying at the beginning of 2009 that we would have too many.
"We are not keeping the sheep to sell them, it's to remind people of what the sheep were like in the Bronze Age.
"We now only have two ewes, so I will be protecting them to try and get some lambs in the Spring.
Police have launched an investigation into the latest attack.
Anyone with information on the attacks should call community safety unit officer, Carol Aston on 0345 456 4564.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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