Community rallies to support family

Greg Ruddenklau
Greg Ruddenklau
The North Otago community is rallying to support the Stackhouse family following the recent slaughter of about 195 sheep on their Ngapara farm.

A fundraising stock sale, an initiative of Federated Farmers and the community, is being held in Oamaru next month.

All proceeds will go to Peter and Janine Stackhouse, who lost an estimated $30,000 in potential income from the sheep.

The sale will be held on Monday, July 7 at the Waiareka saleyards at the conclusion of the weekly Waiareka stock sale.

Anyone wanting to donate ewes or lambs should deliver them to the saleyards on the morning of the sale.

If unable to deliver donated stock, people should contact North Otago Federated Farmers meat and fibre chairman Greg Ruddenklau on (03) 432-4006 or 027-429-6179 to arrange pickup. A fundraising bank account has also been set up by Rural Women New Zealand for anyone wanting to make a cash donation to the family.

Yesterday, Mr Ruddenklau said the number of stock that would be donated was an unknown, but he expected many people would want to contribute either cash or stock.

The rural North Otago community was definitely ''on edge'' following the slaughter, he said.

Federated Farmers North Otago vice-president Lyndon Strang said it was great to see how quickly and generously people and organisations were coming together to support the family.

The rural community was very strong and the incident reinforced the need to ''keep an eye out'' for any abnormal behaviour and to talk to neighbours, Mr Strang said.

He was concerned about the size and nature of the incident, saying it appeared to be ''well planned, extremely callous and with no clear motive''.

The Westpac bank account (03-0937-0071238-00) is under the name Rural Women NZ North Otago and people are asked to note ''farm stock'' in the reference window.

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