AN EVESHAM woman walking with her two young daughters on Bredon Hill was appalled to find the rotting bodies of a number of sheep alongside a public footpath.

It was while Catherine Chwalinski of Rynal Place, Evesham, was walking the footpath near Elmley Castle and Little Comberton, with Kalina, aged 11, and Rosanna, aged 14, and their dog Abbie, that they came across the carcase of a lamb.

"We walked a bit further, 20 yards or so, and saw another whole dead sheep," she said. "We continued along the designated footpath through a couple of gateways where there were two more very decomposed rotting carcases.

"In another gateway which was not part of the footpath, there was another decomposed, stinking carcase, covered in maggots."

Mrs Chwalinski, who had taken her daughters for what she thought would be a pleasant walk on Bredon Hill, said: "I just couldn't take any more so we turned round and came back home."

But, before doing so, she took photographs of the dead animals and has passed them on to the RSPCA and Trading Standards Officers at Worcestershire County Council, who are conducting an investigation.

"I was surprised that when I took the officers to the area where I saw the dead sheep, all the evidence had been cleared away, apart from the lamb carcase, which was quite small and likely to have been missed," she said. "It was as though someone had heard what I was doing."

Mrs Chwalinski added: "I have worked with all sorts of stock in the past and also as a veterinary assistant, but to see animals just left to get into this sort of state really threw me."

County council spokesman Lee Shrimpton said: "Trading Standards did receive a complaint from a member of the public regarding dead sheep on Bredon Hill. Officers went out to investigate but there were no carcases there when they arrived."

He said photographic evidence provided would help officers follow up the complaint.