The discovery of a pile of sheep skins and other sheep remains dumped on farmland near Lake Hawea has been reported to Wanaka police this week.
Lake Hawea Station farmer Tom Rowley was out mustering cattle a few days ago when he found the animal remains in a patch of briar on his property ''about 20 foot [6m] from the high-water mark'', near the Timaru River.
There were about a dozen sheep skins with some sheep heads in among them, which appeared to have been there for several weeks.
''We don't believe they're our [sheep's] skins,'' Mr Rowley told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
''They look like crossbreed skins ... we only have merinos.''
While there was ''obviously something shady going on'', Mr Rowley had not heard any recent reports of stock thefts in the area. However, it was difficult for any farmers to detect small numbers of sheep being taken from their properties, he said.
''Half a dozen here and there out of a mob of 600 to 1000 sheep can go relatively unnoticed.''
The police had not received any other reports of animal remains being dumped.
