Sheep attacks

It really frustrates me the lack of responsibility that some dog owners have. If your dog is not on your property it should be under close control (although that is pretty subjective!), If your dog can escape your garden secure the garden!! The financial and emotional impact to a livestock farmer can be massive and there is absolutely no excuse for allowing it to happen. If you are in the countryside put your dog on a lead, it is not rocket science. Even if your dog is not 'chasing' livestock, the fact the animals are reacting negatively to the dog being in the field means they are being worried, a farmer is perfectly within their right to shoot the dog. This is not something a farmer is going to want to do but will and should protect his livestock.
 
there's been a couple of awful attacks quite local to me-people just dont understand the impact it has on farmers, not just market value, emotional impact but the impact on their future breeding and lines lost.


And quite apart from all that, you'd think these people would want to protect their dogs?!
 
it has shocked me how many attacks in such a short time, i cant understand why people do not keep their dogs under control in the countryside. i wouldnt want my dog to distress any livestock and would also be worried that she would be shot if i didnt keep her under control....
 
Fortunately we live in a quiet corner of Scotland and, while we do get some hill walkers (especially after the walkhighlands website published walks in the area!), we don't get that many dog walkers and those who do come up here tend to be responsible and keep their dogs on leads. I can count on one hand the number of sheep worrying incidents we have suffered in the last ten years. Farming friends in busy tourist areas (such as the Lakes and Dales) and those whose farms border busy towns do seem to suffer much more regularly.
 
yes, most attacks around here have been on the edge of Lanark or Biggar. There was a rash of attacks in Biggar last year following the building of a new estate-blamed on people new to the area and also locals being displaced from their normal dog walking route. You'd hope that people from a town like Biggar would know better though.
 
Sheep watch took this to The House of Lords on Tuesday with all the evidence reports that people like myself had sadly had to send in.

I have a small flock of pedigree sheep and towards the end of last year a dog off lead attacked them. One of my beautiful ewe lambs had it's jaw half ripped off and two of my ewes aborted. It was horrible, I lost a rare breeding line that I had searched and searched to find, I lost the sizeable amount of money that I had paid for that sheep (The insurance would not pay out as we had to claim a few years ago after a similar dog attack led to the death of seven of our store lambs) and I have two ewes that will not be producing lambs this year. What was worse though was that little lamb was the sweetest, most friendly little creature and she suffered hours of pain because not only did the lowlife dog owner let it happen, they also failed to report it.
 
so sorry Wimbles, I hope something good comes out of the Sheepwatch campaign.

I see Hartpury college had an attack last evening, 5 ewes lost, lambs too plus lambs orphaned-noone reported it and one of the ewes was left suffering.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top