'It's just vile and dreadful': Farmer's anger after 48 of his lambs drown when concrete slab protecting well is removed

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Upset: Farmer Clive Taylor is angry at pranksters who removed a slab protecting a well, resulting in the deaths of 48 lambs

A farmer has spoken of his anger after a concrete slab protecting a well in his field was deliberately removed and resulted in the death of 48 lambs.
Clive Taylor, 62, found the animals dead floating at the bottom of a disused well at his farm at Broomcroft Farm, near Much Wenlock, Shropshire on Sunday.
The 8ft-deep well was covered with a 200kg stone slab which Mr Taylor believes was deliberately removed to expose the 2ft wide hole which the lambs tumbled into.
He said: 'I walk the fields usually twice a day. We walked it on Sunday morning and you could tell there was something wrong.

Drowned: The bodies of the 48 lambs found dead in the well are laid out at the farm. The animals were around ten per cent of Mr Taylor's livestock

'A ewe came calling out and I looked round the field and thought there weren't enough lambs there. There had been about 150 lambs with 100 ewes.
'I looked over to the well and I could see that the lid was up. I looked down the well and I could see it was full of lambs.
'I thought to start with there were 10 floating in there, but then some friends came around and a local builder and we made a gaff (a large iron hook) and pulled them out and saw there were 48.
'They'd all been lying on top of each other in the water. There may be more still in there.

Malicious: Mr Taylor said there was no finger prints on the slab or evidence of movement by the well, which is 8ft deep

'One farmer said "do I think someone chucked them in" - but I don't think they could have.' The lambs which died were worth £5,000 and around ten per cent of Mr Taylor's livestock. He added: 'The amazing thing is we might not be insured. We have to prove it was a malicious act.
'But the police can't find fingerprints on a stone slab and the ground's been so dry there's no trace of anyone being there.
'It's been moved by human beings. It's just vile and dreadful. It's been done by a person.'

source: dailymail