Updated, May 11, 7:23 AM ET to include statement from police.

Sheep privacy matters, too.

At least that's what the West Midlands Police believe. The UK police force jokingly blurred the faces of a group of stolen sheep found in the back of a of a truck.

West Midlands Police inexplicably decided to pixelate the faces of these allegedly stolen sheep pic.twitter.com/hVP9SWGi0p — Richard AL Williams (@RichALWilliams) May 10, 2016

In a blog post cheekily titled, "Sheep rustling suspects behind baa-rs after police chase," the West Midlands Police described the incident, where a group of sheep discovered in the back of a Ford Galaxy was rescued and taken into police care.

They chose to blur the sheep's faces. You know, to protect their identities.

"The identity of the lambs has been protected due to their age and vulnerability," the photo caption reads.

But for anyone who didn't quite get it, they added a helpful "(It's a joke!)"

A spokesperson from West Midlands Police explained to Mashable that the blurred image was originally uploaded to social media by an officer. After receiving requests for the original they took the blurred version down while trying to contact the officer, but due to them being on annual leave they were unable to do so.



Additional reporting by Sam Haysom

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