Sheep attacked

We found a seriously injured sheep in a field on our evening walk today, des must of heard it as he brought it to our attention. We thought it was dead at first but when it saw us it started bleating. RSPCA where superb and came out within an hour of our call. We then had a long dark walk in the woods with torches and then finally found the little one again and we carried her back to the van in a towel. Things look bleak for lorreta the sheep (as I have named her) but her eyes where open and she was a bit more responsive when we left. She's now off to the vet and hopefully will be more comfortable and warm. Safe to say lamb will be off the menu for quite some time.

Update: just had a call from the RSPCA and lorreta has had to be put to sleep. She was attacked by a dog and her injuries where too severe. Such a shame and makes me cross that some dog owners are not responsible. We are pretty certain it had just happened before we found her as the blood was fresh and des was fussing over something in the distance. Poor thing now in peace, glad she didn't die a slow death in the cold and dark.

Sad, maybe a fox?

Oh dear. What has the sheep's owner to say about this?

I was brought up in the country and a farmer was (and maybe still is) entitled to shoot a dog found "worrying" his sheep. I had a childhood friend whose puppy was shot for just this reason (this was in the days when dogs were allowed out to roam) but I'll never forget his tears.

Sorry Janey. I may be wrong, but I've never heard of a fox mortally injuring a fully grown sheep - a lamb yes, but not a sheep.

Poor sheep as you say, at least she didn't suffer a long death alone in the cold.

Hi thanks for your replies, when we picked the sheep up we couldn't tel what had attacked her because it was dark and there was a lot of blood. Honestly it looked like she had been stabbed. The RSPCA rang me from the vets after they had looked in more detail and confirmed it was a dog attack. The police had also contacted the RSPCA as we were wandering round the woods at night and the matter has been officially reported as a dig attack. The shame is the farmer said it happens all the time.
My personal opinion is that the sheep was also very thin and small and should have been indoors. I thinker may have been already weak as the wounds were fresh. We are virtually certain the dog can't have been far away when we found the sheep.
In fact we met several digs and owners that afternoon.
I am not a vegetarian but I don't like to see any animal suffer and the poor farmers livelihood is at stake.
We keep our dog on a 6 metre lead in the woods as he chases deer. Wildlife and other animals shouldn't be disturbed on our walk.
P.s my mums dog was shot through the ear when she was young as she squeezed through the fence and rounded up the fence. Now she was large and the fence was in bad condition but the farmer will still shoot any dig on his property if sheep are there.

Sorry to hear of the poor sheep. The farmers get precious little for sheep these days as it is. That will be quite a loss for him. We would never let Rocky off lead anywhere near any animals like that, too risky.