A community safety activist from Schaapkraal was greeted with a baa-baric sight on Saturday evening when he found close to 10 sheep carcasses strewn near the road.
The unclaimed skape were found with their binnedele taken out and just their skin, intestines and head remaining.
The safety officer, who asked not to be named, made the discovery along Olieboom Road near the Philippi police station, while he and his team were patrolling the area.
“It’s a really sad thing to see how these animals were just discarded without a care,” he told the Daily Voice.
“The first thing you think is who would do such a thing, and why?”
Upon closer inspection, the officer and his crew found that the diere did not have any markings or form of identification on them.
“There were tags on them but it did not have numbers on it,” he explained.
“These animals are also usually branded with tattoos or markings on their ears to identify them, but they also didn’t have that, so it was quite hard to determine where they came from.”
He said when farmers from the surrounding areas were called to the scene, but also could not identify the sheep.
“People in the area are now suspecting it to be the work of an illegal abattoir and the area is being closely monitored,” the officer added.
Spokesperson Allan Perrins confirmed that Animal Welfare Society are aware of the find, adding that no one has come forward to claim or report any sheep missing.
“Our chief inspector, Mark Levendal, went to the scene and asked around but up until today we came up empty-handed,” Perrins said.
“This was quite a bizarre find; never in my decades of working with the organisation has something like this been discovered. We did, however, remove the carcasses and discarded its remains safely.
“I personally think the sheep were slaughtered somewhere and the Cape Flats was just used as the dumping ground.”
What makes the incident even more mysterious is that the smiley (head) and wool of the sheep remained intact, he added.
“If it was desperate people, they would have taken the wool, and if it was used for food, people usually take the smiley,” Perrins said.
“This is why we are asking people with information to step forward and make contact with the inspectorate on 021 692 2626.”
Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg could not confirm the incident and said that Philippi police have no record of the matter.