A flock of sheep brought in to tidy up a graveyard have been aggressively ramming and headbutting mourners. 

The animals have been brought in to graze at Mount Road cemetery in St Asaph, North Wales, for over ten years. 

But heartbroken locals say their behaviour has now changed, and are now attacking those who try to pay their respects. 

One woman claimed the woolly flock tried to ‘headbutt and ram’ friends and family members.

She said the animals were ‘kicking out with back legs’ and ‘were not the ‘friendly’ sheep we know at all, unfortunately.’

‘If my mother or our friends were walking with young children and their dogs, it actually would have been quite dangerous and a total other story.’

Cemetery co-ordinator Duncan Cameron admitted the sheep could be ‘a bit in your face’ as they were looking for food but posed no real threat.

He said: ‘If the sheep bother you, stand still, clap your hands and shout at them. They will soon leave you alone.’

The animals have been brought in to graze at Mount Road cemetery in St Asaph, North Wales, for over ten years

One woman claimed the woolly flock tried to ‘headbutt and ram’ friends and family members

‘They are very tame and assume that if someone comes through the cemetery, they have food for them.

‘They are big sheep and again because they have never been herded by dogs, are not in the slightest bit worried by dogs.’

‘People have sometimes been feeding the sheep, which they certainly don’t need in the summer months – and it gets the sheep hopeful that the next visitor also has feed for them.’

‘But they are lovely sheep who do a great job of maintaining the churchyard. The only issue now is whether there’s enough grass for them here: with the dry weather in May, it’s not growing as fast as usual.’

Cameron told the BBC that the church running the cemetery initially planned to get rid of the sheep in the coming months, but ‘there was a torrent of support’ for the animals. 

Supporters said the flock was well-loved, and that children and elderly people felt soothed by them. 

One local said in a Facebook group post: ‘Don’t sell them. My son loves them.’

Another said: ‘Leave the sheep alone. I walk through the cemetery twice a day and they are no bother at all… they are all a delight.’ 

Cameron said that with 700 graves at the site, trying to keep the graves neat without the sheep makes maintenance ‘unmanageable’. 

He added: ‘Instead of us smashing our mowers against the gravestones the sheep nibble around them so neatly.’