Daniel Wheeler, a rare sheep breeder, had 5 of his Campbell Island ewes slaughtered some time last week. He found their unborn lambs and some entrails in a paddock

*This story has some graphic images that may upset some people

As Daniel Wheeler approached the paddock, he couldn't quite believe what he saw.

The remains of five of his Campbell Island ewes – among just 35 left in the world – lay in the grass, along with the animals' unborn lambs, cut from their bellies. Lambing was due to start in two weeks.

DAVID WALKER/STUFF Daniel Wheeler, a rare sheep breeder, had five of his Campbell Island ewes slaughtered some time last week. He found their unborn lambs and some entrails in a paddock on Saturday.

"I was shocked to be honest," Wheeler said.

"Just a sense of disbelief and shock and anger . . . It's literally the middle of Christchurch. There's flash houses overlooking it, there's walking tracks. I was a little bit dumbfounded that it had happened in such a public place."

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DAVID WALKER/STUFF Just 30 Campbell Island ewes remain after five were slaughtered in a Christchurch paddock.

Wheeler discovered the slaughter on Saturday, but guessed it happened two or three days earlier. He checked on his flock of Campbell Island sheep once or twice a week.

The five sheep had been herded into a small pen in their multi-paddock enclosure at the Styx Mill Reserve in Christchurch and then killed. Apart from the entrails and the dead lambs, the only other signs of the crime was some congealed blood, an abandoned knife sheath and some damaged fence wire.

Access to the paddocks was only through three padlocked gates, which meant the thieves would have had to kill the sheep and then carry them at least 400 metres to the nearest car park – or further if they struck after 7pm, when the car park gates were locked. Wheeler believed more than one person was responsible.

DAVID WALKER/STUFF Wheeler has reported the crime to police is not confident the culprit - or culprits - will ever be found.

"Five sheep would have been five trips," he said, "It's either five trips or it's multiple people."

"They would have had quite a job to get the sheep into the wee yard. I doubt very much one person could have done it on their own."

Wheeler reported the crime to police, but was pessimistic about the culprits being found. Still, he planned to do DNA-testing on the remains for comparison in case a suspect, or suspect meat, was identified.

Campbell Island sheep were named for the namesake, sub-Antarctic island where they were farmed for 40 years from the late-nineteenth century. From the early 1930s they lived feral on the island – about 600 kilometres south of New Zealand – for another 40 years before a handful were brought here for conservation purposes and the remainder gradually culled. Wheeler, a rare sheep breeder from Kaiapoi, bought the New Zealand flock about 12 years ago.

"They're quite unique in that they were only really feral for 40 years," he said.

"They weren't wild for a particularly long time but it's quite obvious that they evolved really quickly to adapt to surviving on what's a pretty horrific climate on Campbell Island."

The sheep are thought to be a mix of several breeds, including merino, Lincoln and Leicester. They were quite small and slow-growing, but alert and agile, Wheeler said. He liked to maintain his flock at about 40 ewes.

"It's a relatively small population and they're not a particularly productive breed. It's a pretty big blow. Thirty-five is the minimum I would like to have to maintain a healthy population."