Dog kills 20 sheep

Please keep your dogs under control around sheep and lambs
http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2014-05-12/lambs-orphaned-after-dog-kills-20-sheep-at-hants-farm/

It's heart breaking... Not just for the sheep and lambs, but for the farmers as well.

Gets my blood boiling when people are so irresponsible with their dogs. I don't care how friendly or well behaved a dog is - keep it on a lead around livestock.

Absolutely VITAL. Better yet, don't take your dog anywhere near sheep; they are so easily panicked and can damage themselves or their lambs and if the farmer is around and your dog is off the lead he WILL shoot it. I'll never forget a childhood friend getting a puppy he adored - the puppy trespassed onto nearby sheep farm and was shot. That little boy's anguish is hard to forget.

You're so right, Lynda.

What a sad story - it further fuels some people's views that dogs should never be allowed off lead anywhere!

Caryll wrote: ... further fuels some people's views that dogs should never be allowed off lead anywhere!

I wouldn't go that far Caryll, but I have never taken a dog anywhere near a sheep - even on a lead.

I have taken dogs off lead around sheep, but have always been very careful & kept a good distance away. I've never let them chase sheep, or even go out of my sight when there are sheep around.

With all that's happened recently, alongside the fact that farmers can shoot any off lead dog, I wouldn't chance it.

Good point Eleanor!

This is why my dogs have to be 'kenneled' while I'm at work. There's loads of sheep, lambs, cows and calves around. Xan and Dozer (RIP) once ran away from my mum and got into a cow paddock. Xan lost a tooth in that altercation after a cow got pissed at him.

Poor Xan!

Shisa wrote:This is why my dogs have to be 'kenneled' while I'm at work. There's loads of sheep, lambs, cows and calves around. Xan and Dozer (RIP) once ran away from my mum and got into a cow paddock. Xan lost a tooth in that altercation after a cow got pissed at him.

Ouch!

I don't take the dogs up to my mums anymore but when I did I always avoided times the lambs were around. I didn't want to take he risk they might leave the garden and upset the sheep with lambs.

Eleanor wrote:Poor Xan!

Definitely not poor Xan. He got what he deserved. She rolled and trampled him, not that it taught him any respect for a cow