Group of animals heartlessly caught (4)

I believe the answer is:

herd

'group of animals' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'heartlessly caught' is the wordplay.
'heartlessly' means to remove the middle letters.
'caught' becomes 'heard' (I've seen this before).
'heard' with its middle taken out is 'HERD'.

(Other definitions for herd that I've seen before include "pack" , "Drive" , "Flock" , "Animal group" , "13 Down group" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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