If your dog goes for my sheep, then I will shoot, UK farmers warn walkers

Farmers are warning that assaults on livestock by canines are reaching “epidemic proportions” as they brace themselves for a surge in dog assaults heading into peak lambing season.

An improve in dog possession through the pandemic, particularly amongst inexperienced dog house owners, noticed the price of dog assaults on livestock rise 10% final yr to £1.3m, in response to research published by NFU Mutual.

Rebecca Davidson, rural affairs specialist on the insurer, stated: “It’s a critical time in the farming calendar and there is widespread concern as we enter the peak lambing season that there will be a surge in new visitors who are simply unaware of the Countryside Code or how their dog will behave around farm animals.”

The begin of lambing season has been fraught for farmer Gordon Wyeth attributable to assaults on his sheep by pet canines. He estimates that the variety of assaults has doubled for the reason that begin of lockdown. “We had a ram that was bitten through the throat and died, we had six lambs [killed], I think that was the next day. And then we had a husky chasing in-lamb ewes, the day after that. One ewe died after that one,” he stated. “The problem is reaching epidemic proportions. It’s so much worse than it ever has been.”

The revised Countryside Code, printed on 1 April, advises guests to maintain their canines “under control and in sight” – pointers that farmers concern don’t go far sufficient in educating dog house owners.

It is a felony offence for a dog to chase or assault livestock, often called “worrying”, and house owners are liable for a £1,000 positive, even when the dog seems to trigger no hurt.

Davidson stated: “Even if a dog doesn’t make physical contact, the distress and exhaustion of the chase can cause sheep to die or miscarry.

These attacks cause unbearable suffering to farm animals, as well as huge anxiety for farmers and their families as they deal with the aftermath.”

Wyeth, who is among the largest sheep farmers in Britain with 12,000 sheep throughout the south of England, has suffered greater than most.

In one assault, in 2016, he lost 116 sheep and lambs, which is considered the worst assault on document within the UK and is definitely his greatest single loss in 35 years of sheep farming.

He stated: “They were pushed into a gateway in a gully and smothered. We just found a great big heap of dead sheep pushed up against the gate. We never found the dog for that one.

“We were mortified. When you’ve got lots of animals you get used to death and everything else, but it’s a different kind of feeling – it’s emotional when it’s such a waste and the animals are suffering.”

He stated indicators put up across the farm are sometimes eliminated by dog walkers and police appear reluctant to take motion after assaults.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for rural and wildlife crime, Chief Constable Darren Martland, stated police forces had been “strengthening their response to rural crime” and urged rural communities to be “our eyes and ears”.

But regardless of livestock worrying being against the law, Wyeth has been left preventing dog house owners each within the civil courts and in his personal fields. He stated: “You’d be amazed the abuse we get when we pull anyone up about not having their dogs on leads.”

Wyeth say he’s a dog lover and owns 10 canines himself. He blames the house owners for assaults, including: “There isn’t such a thing as a bad dog, it’s just bad owners.”

Dr Jenna Kiddie, head of canine behaviour on the Dogs Trust, warned all dog house owners to be on their guard across the sight, sound, odor and even expectation of livestock.

She stated: “It is important to remember that chasing is part of a dog’s normal behaviour, and that any dog is capable of chasing, irrelevant of breed, type, age or size.”

But on prime of the harm their canines can do, and the chance of being fined, house owners have one more reason to be involved.

The regulation protects farmers who shoot canines which are chasing livestock, and Wyeth has shot pet canines up to now. He stated: “It makes you feel sick for weeks, it’s horrible.”

But he added: “We’ve just started lambing so I take my gun with me. I can guarantee you, within the next two or three weeks, a dog will attack my sheep and I will shoot it.”