Police are appalled at the treatment of four sheep they found bleeding but alive in a car boot near Te Hana.

Wellsford police checked a suspiciously parked car on State Highway 1 in Te Hana on Saturday March 2 around midnight.



''They found four sheep in the boot of the car. All were alive but had been severely beaten and were bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth,'' Wellsford police sergeant Kellie Bissett says.



''The sheep had been stolen from a nearby property and were destined for a tangi.''



Four men from Whangarei, Manukau and Te Hana, aged between 17 and 23, have been charged with theft and wilfully ill treating the animals by allegedly punching and kicking them.



The sheep were destroyed due to the extent of their injuries and distress.



''This was an abhorrent act of cruelty,'' Ms Bissett says.