CLA South East is urging dog owners to understand their responsibilities and the law to help prevent livestock being badly injured and killed during the lambing season.
Lambing season is a busy time of year for farmers, and livestock worrying can have serious effects on animals including stress, injury and abortion. Sheep do not cope well with stressful situations and can even die from shock days after the event. If a dog is seen to be worrying sheep, farmers can legally shoot them dead.
So CLA South East, which represents farmers, landowners and rural businesses across the Isle of Wight, is offering advice to dog owners to help avoid problems this season.
Regional Director Tim Bamford has said:
“We would advise owners to keep their dogs under close control when walking through fields of livestock, particularly sheep at this time of year, and to always stick to public rights of ways.
“If you live near land with livestock in it, ensure that you know where your dog is at all times, make sure your property is secure and check dogs can’t escape at any time.
“It is the owner’s responsibility to keep their dog under control and we are also raising awareness about the potential consequences of not doing so. Livestock worrying is a criminal offence and a fine of £1,000 can be handed out.
“It is also important that every instance of livestock worrying is reported to the police. This will allow for a more accurate picture of the scale of the problem to be built up, and assist the police and Government to determine what resources and powers are required in order to effectively tackle the problem.”
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Where a dog is in the act of worrying livestock and there is, or is likely to be serious damage to those livestock, call police on 999. Alternatively, dial 101 to report an incident where the dogs are no longer present after an attack or to report problem dog behaviour. Photographs and videos of the worrying incident and/or the damage it caused can be extremely useful.
I hope dog owners take the offer of advice. Very awkward for a farmer when he/she is confronted by an aggressive dog owner, who refuses to obey the countryside codes.
I a dog is found injuring sheep or lambs the farmer can legally shoot tye dog.
So think before letting dog off lead!
Keep dogs on a lead at ALL times when near to sheep. Would also help, if farmers put warning notices of sheep on the entrance gates. If it’s a hilly field, walkers may not immediately see the sheep
They should be on a lead at all times in farm fields and the owner should pick up their dogs faeces as they can spread diseases which can seriously affect cattle and sheep, whilst the public have the right to use the public footpath they have an obligation to keep to it and not wander all over the field, the fields are not public land they are private property
Putting up notices makes no difference to dog owners, unfortunately. There’s plenty of signs around on streets telling dog owners to clean up after their dogs but a significant minority just ignore them so I can’t see a sign about lambing making a blind bit of difference either.
I’m a dog owner and a respectful one. I HATE seeing dog poo on pavements etc and often pick up droppings not done by my own pooch. I ABSOLUTELY cannot bear seeing poo bags hung in trees and thrown in hedgerows and really CANNOT understand that mentality. I’m not a fan of cats as my garden is constantly plopped in SO, whilst many grumble about dogs – cat owners seemingly have no worries as cat goes out and never poops on its own ground and looks for some nice song bird dinner too but just for fun as no doubt it’ll have its ‘Kittekat’ later that night. I get fed up with dodging huge mounds of horse poo on the old train track walks too but often wonder if gardeners go scoop it up for their roses etc. Dogs generally seem to be moaned about the most and that’s not particularly fair. I do accept though that there are some irresponsible owners. But please don’t tar us all with the same brush.