A Northland beef farmer has taken to social media with gruesome photos of one of his cows he found slaughtered in a paddock, in a bid to try and find the offender.
Photo: 123RF
Dargaville police are investigating the incident, in which a beef cow that was due to calve this week was found with its throat slit and legs hacked off.
The cow was on a Te Raroa Iwi farm, on Waipoua Settlement Road, just north of Dargaville, and was found dead on Friday morning.
Tim Reuben, the beef farm manager for the iwi, said he posted the photos on Facebook to try to find whoever was responsible.
The post has been shared by 650 people.
He said it was a horrible discovery, made even worse because the cow was pregnant.
"It was not only the way they'd killed it and butchered it in the paddock in the mud, but they're actually thieving off of our iwi.
"We spend a lot of time looking after these animals trying to do some good for our people up here and these mongrels come up here and help themselves, thinking they've got some God-given right to do it."
Whoever was responsible was doing it for the meat, and would have been working quickly, he said.
"I'd say this person has had some experience in butchering, it's like they've done a bit of hunting for goat culling and had some idea what to do.
"But it was done pretty rough, obviously in quite a big hurry. They did a bad job of it."
