A gang of ruthless livestock thieves is preying on new born lambs up in the fields between Rye Harbour and Winchelsea Beach. Last weekend, walkers who were on the public footpaths behind New Winchelsea Road, on the way to Camber Castle, were literally shocked by the security measures that had been put in place to protect the lambs and their mothers from the villains who had them in their sights.
Electric fences had been erected to separate the pregnant ewes from the new mothers and their babies. According to a local farmer, the hormones surging through the pregnant sheep made them prone to forcibly adopting a new born lamb often from a sheep that has had two. Then when the sheep rustler has her own, she abandons the adopted lamb which might subsequently perish from neglect.
As all the sheep are inseminated at roughly the same time, the births are also condensed into a very small timeframe. It’s a beautiful springtime walk but beware, you may well see something you didn’t anticipate and could even end up helping out if the birth is difficult.
Photo: Anastasia Vengerova