A GRISLY scene met Brian Evans when he went to feed his pet sheep in a secluded field near York.

The innards of nine of his lambs littered the summer hedgerows, and gates and fences were splattered with blood from the slaughter.

Further investigation of the field, next to the outer ring road at Haxby, yielded the bodies of two fully-grown sheep that had apparently been shot.

The bodies of the lambs were nowhere to be found.

"Whoever did this is sick," said Mr Evans.

"It's heartbreaking. It's not like I'm in this for the money - these were my pets."

Mr Evans, a Railtrack signalman who lives in Sycamore Terrace, York, made the gruesome discovery yesterday morning.

"I knew they had been slaughtered when I saw all the blood," he said.

"It seems to have been a very professional job and they obviously knew what they were doing."

He believes the adult Swaledale sheep - whose bodies were hidden in bushes out of the field - may have run over to protect their young as they were being killed and were then shot by the rustlers.

A brief inspection of the carcasses has led him to believe a shotgun may have been used.

"They've just killed them and slung them over the fence - it's disgusting," he said.

"What's the sense in killing them if you are not going to do anything with them? It's just cruel."

But of this year's lambs, born in February, only the intestines remain.

"Someone has butchered them and taken them away for eating, maybe for a restaurant," he said.

"It looks like they were stolen to order."

The operation would have included rounding up the lambs and disposing of the bodies of the adult sheep.

Mr Evans said: "Whoever did this hasn't got a heart."

Sergeant Colin Ventress, of York police, confirmed the matter had been reported.

Picture - Brian Evans with with the remainder of his flock of pet sheep