POLICE are investigating after an Exmoor woman’s pet sheep named Lamb Chop and another animal were savaged to death in an identical dog attack to one which happened almost exactly a year ago.

Smallholder Wendy Sherring was left distraught by the killings, which involved a young Saint Bermastiff, a cross between a bull mastiff and Saint Bernard.

Lamb Chop was one of two pet sheep which Mrs Sherring kept in a field of eight at her home, Hiccombe Cottage, Brompton Regis.

They were the remnants of a flock which had been attacked early in May of last year when two died and two more were seriously injured.

Mrs Sherring said: “She used to live in the house when she was born and went for walks in the woods with me and always came when I called her.

“It is heartbreaking. I feel so angry about it.

“People do not realise how stressful it is when you find them torn to pieces in the field, how we work hard to keep these sheep alive and healthy.”

Mrs Sherring said the dog involved last year was owned by a local resident and was later put down by a veterinary surgeon.

Last week’s attack was blamed on the Saint Bermastiff puppy of the dog involved in 2023 and belonged to the same local family.

Mrs Sherring said her husband Peter had challenged a woman leaving the field with the dog and her response had been ‘our fences should have been high enough so her dog could not get in’.

She said: “If one of us had gone in there to try to intervene it probably would have savaged us as well.”

A police spokesperson said: “Inquiries are ongoing and our rural crime team has been made aware.

“It is an offence to worry sheep and we would remind dog owners to keep their dogs on leads in and around fields of livestock and to also not climb over gates which have been locked.

“If you have any information about this incident which could help our investigation, please call 101 and quote reference 5224105330.”