The owners of an alpaca farm are "heartbroken and devastated" after three alpacas were beaten to death.

A pregnant alpaca, Gabriella, and another female, Pleasance, were found dead in a shelter at the farm in Little Kingshill, Great Missenden, on Saturday January 6.

The following day a four-month-old alpaca was also found dead in the shelter.

Post-mortem examinations carried out by a vet revealed the cause of death in each case to be blunt force trauma.

Owners Lesley and Andrew Sapsford believe the deaths are the result of a human beating the animals to death and are scared for the safety of the 80 other alpacas in the herd.

Ragamuffin was just four-months-old when he was found dead in the alpaca shelter

Lesley said: “Somebody has purposely done this and they did it in the shelter so that they could not be seen. We are heartbroken and devastated - we can’t believe that anybody would be so cruel.

“At this time of year there isn’t any grass on the field so we feed them concentrate, which means they would have seen someone coming onto the field thinking that they were going to be fed.

Gabriella was pregnant when she was beaten to death at the farm

“Our alpacas have never been treated badly by a human before. We can’t process the evilness of it all. We’re so worried about our other alpacas now. Whoever has done this could do it again.

“If anyone saw anything, heard our alpacas screaming, saw any strange cars - anything at all which would give us a lead - please report it to the RSPCA or the police.”

Pleasance was found dead on Saturday (January 6)

RSPCA inspector Rachel Smith, who is investigating, said: “This is a sickening act of cruelty which has left the owners devastated. It is very concerning that someone would think it acceptable to do this to an animal.

“We are keen to hear from anyone who has any information at all which could help us in our investigation.”

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