Police are hunting sick yobs who set fire to a sheep.

The defenceless animal was put inside a hay feeder, covered in hay then set alight.

Officers, who say they don’t know if the animal was alive when it was torched, branded the bizarre incident “callous” and “sick”.

The ewe’s extensively burned corpse was found by a worker in a field at Gote Farm, Ringmer at 9am on Wednesday morning.

It is thought to have died the previous evening. Farmer William Craig said: “It was one of my staff who found it. It was really shocking and nasty.

“I can’t quite get my head around why anyone would do something so sick. It must be someone pretty strange.

“She was completely burned from head to tail, but there were no other injuries on her.

“I did think that maybe it had been a dog attack that someone had tried to cover up, but there was no sign of that and no blood.

“No other animals had been hurt either. The whole thing’s very odd.”

Mr Craig said that although the incident had happened out of sight from his home, he hoped someone on a nearby footpath might have seen what had happened.

PC Garreth Evans investigating the incident said: "This is an extremely cruel crime and we are keen to find out any information which may lead us to the person or people which carried out this callous act.

"There are many public footpaths in the area and someone walking nearby may have noticed something suspicious."

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Sussex Police on 0845 6070999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.