Marauding dogs are thought to have killed 17 lambs stranded on a farm by foot-and- mouth.

The lambs' carcasses were found today by their owner William Bell at Scholebrook Farm, Tong.

The animals should have been back at their original home in Colne, Lancashire, by the start of spring but became trapped on the cattle farm because of transport restrictions due to outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.

The sheep were brought to the farm - owned by Stephen Hanson, pictured with the carcasses, - to keep them sheltered over the winter months.

Mr Bell, 48, said the lambs were probably worth about £50 each and guessed they had been killed by dogs allowed to wander from their homes on nearby estates.

"First I saw two of them, then found another few and realised it would be serious. It was awful," he said.

"It was always going to be a danger keeping them on the farm because there are quite a lot of dogs in that area.

"We tried to keep the lambs safe, but the dogs managed to sneak in and kill them.

"It seems people don't have any feeling or responsibility at all, or these dogs wouldn't have been wandering about."

Mr Bell owns a farm in Colne, where the flock of 80 in Scholebrook would have joined another 270, kept at farms in Cleckheaton, to begin the lambing season.

Mr Hanson said a major worry with the rest of the pregnant ewes was that the distress of the attack might lead to still-births.

He said: "William was due to take them home a couple of months ago. We would never consider lambing here because of the dogs.

"He found them at about 6.30am today and I came down at about 7am. He was heartbroken.

"We need to make people aware they have to keep their dogs fastened."