MORE than 30 pregnant sheep were killed or mutilated by a marauding pack of dogs.

Graphic images show sheep carcasses scattered across a field with their faces torn off after a group of dogs got in to carry out the massacre.

Of the 32 pregnant ewes, 15 died, 16 were seriously injured and only one left unharmed after she managed to barricade herself under a broken fence wedged between carcasses.

The sheep, belonging to Plaw Hatch Farm near East Grinstead, were grazing at nearby Hillsdown Farm when at least two dogs attacked on January 13.

Gala Bailey-Barker, who has been a shepherd at the farm for six years, said it “was like a massacre”.

The 28-year-old said: “It was horrific. Thirty-one of them got mauled and a few of them were already dead when we got there.

“There were sheep with half of their face and bits of their neck missing that we thought must surely be dead but they were still alive.

“Three ewes pregnant with twins lost their lambs and a deer was also killed by the dogs in the field next to us.

“The sheep were all scattered across the field and the dogs must have been there for a long time to do so much damage.”

Horse riders passing through the field raised the alarm when they spotted the escaped dogs attacking sheep and called a local farmer.

Shepherds rushed to the field where a vet began stitching up the animals and tried to put down those that were suffering and “beyond saving”.

But the animals had lost too much blood for the euthanasia to take effect and they had to be shot by an Ashdown Forest Ranger who arrived at the farm shortly afterwards.

Gala, who had bottle-fed one of the mutilated sheep as a lamb, described the aftermath as “traumatising”.

She said: “There was a sheep lying on its back in a ditch and one in the fence that was alive when we found her.

“When we found her, for a minute we thought she was fine but then we rolled her over and she had half of her neck missing.

“We had to put her down as she was in so much pain and we could see she wasn’t going to make it.

“The vet tried to put them down before the ranger arrived but their blood levels were so low the liquid could not get around the body. I have never seen that before.

“So the ranger came over with a bolt gun, with a point blank range, to shoot the sheep and put them out of their misery.”

One of the dogs, thought to be a foxhound/German shepherd cross, was described as a large, black, tan and white dog, while another smaller dog was described as a darker, motley brown colour.

The surviving ewes were moved to different sites within the farm’s 500 acres of land following the attack but shepherds fear they will have to return during lambing season due to a lack of space.

Police have taken DNA samples from six dogs belonging to different owners within a four-mile-radius.