The four dead turtles were discovered by Wodonga friends Rhiannon Miles and Matt Fleming on the Victorian bank of the Murray River beneath the weir wall.

One of the animals was found hanging from a tree by a fishing line tied around its neck, while the remaining three lay burnt with their shells smashed on the grass beneath it.

“It’s very barbaric treatment, especially if the turtles were actually alive,” Dr Arthur Frauenfelder said.

“There’s no reason to do what they’ve done.”

Dr Frauenfelder said all turtles accidentally caught on fishing bait should be removed and returned to the water.

“People should, like most fishermen do, let the turtles go,” he said.

“There’s no environmental problem in having turtles ... (they’re) part of the ecosystem and they’re quite few in number.

“They’re not endangered but they definitely should be just released.”

Dr Frauenfelder said he suspected — and hoped — the turtle that had been strung up had been dead at the time it was hung.

In his experience as a veterinarian, he said it was difficult to get a live turtle’s neck to come out of its shell.

Dr Frauenfelder said those whose shells had been smashed would have suffered great pain.

“Smashing the shell would be fatal to a turtle,” he said.

“It’s a very inhumane attitude to take and it’s as bad as hitting a dog or a cat with a baseball bat across the abdomen or chest to kill them — you’ve actually got to crush that shell with quite a force and then the middle of the shell would penetrate into the animal.

“That would be a very painful thing.

“If any of the burnt ones had a smashed shell they were most likely unconscious or dead (at the time they were set on fire).”

Dr Frauenfelder said anyone who witnessed such brutality should report it to the RSPCA.

Ms Miles said she and her friends had been disturbed by the find.

“It was a shock when we saw it,” she said.

Mr Fleming said he understood fishermen’s frustrations at catching turtles but this behaviour had been unacceptably cruel.

“It’s a bit annoying but you’ve got to put up with them,” he said of the animals’ tendency to get caught while fishing.