Police are struggling to explain the disturbing and grisly find.
ADVERTISEMENTThe gruesome discovery of a headless and hooveless alpaca has sparked a mystery in rural Denmark.
Police said it was found by a walker in a forest near the western town of Struer on Monday afternoon.
Newspaper Holstebro Struer Dagbladet said the animal, a relative of the llama native to South America, also had part of its hind legs removed, suggesting it had been used for meat before dumped.
But police are at a loss as to why its head and hooves were chopped off and, to add to the mystery, no-one has reported an alpaca missing.
“I have no idea why someone would do such a thing,” said Morten Stricker, the photographer who captured the images. “They are not valuable and we wonder why there is no owner who miss the animal.
“I have been a staff photographer at this newspaper (Holstebro Struer Dagbladet) for over 17 years and it's not common to see mutilated animals.”
Stricker said he went to search for the animal with very little information.
“I drove early in the morning to the forest hoping to find the slaughtered Alpaca,” he told Euronews.
“I was told that it was found near a parking space, but there are several options for parking in Denmark's third-largest forest.
“At one of the parking areas I suddenly saw a piece of wool, and I thought ‘I need to look into this area’.
“And there, in between some trees, I saw the dead animal.
“It was a bit surreal. There was absolutely quiet in the woods that morning, and there was only me and the slaughtered Alpaca.”