A NEW-BORN lamb belonging to sheep badger Bev Turpin-West has been shot in the head, she says, but she will still continue commoning.
Bev keeps between 25 and 30 sheep in the Pludds area and says there are many people who speak out against her sheep.
She claims her flock have been attacked on numerous occasions in the past.
Bev said: "I was very busy, so I put most of the sheep into a field, assuming that they would be safe there. At lunchtime, most of them turned up at the house.
"I sent my 19 year-old daughter up to the field to see what had happened and she found a ewe that had just lambed the second of twins.
"The first twin had been shot through the head. What can you say about something like that? She came and got me and I called the police.
"I was very angry – if somebody has a problem with me, why don't they come and talk to me about it? I was also very saddened. It's a stupid, mindless and cowardly thing to do. It isn't as if the lamb could get up and run away from them."
Defra has removed the lamb and taken it for a post-mortem examination to establish the cause of death.
Bev said: "Most years in lambing season I get nuisance calls almost on a daily basis about the sheep and I often find something crawling with maggots and pellet holes."
But she refuses to stop keeping her animals. The family have a small-holding and produce their own meat, wool, milk and cheese. Bev also does felt-making and hand-spinning as a hobby.
Bev added: "I have thought long and hard about the sheep, but I think this sort of thing must happen to other sheep badgers too.
"I do it to uphold the Forest traditions, to protect and preserve the environment we live in. The very nature of the statutory Forest depends on grazing and it has made the Forest the way it is today."