Sheep worrying

The number of dogs (and I'm not counting the sheep) who have lost their lives due to their owner's stupidity is dreadful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35960051

This part's sad reading...

"The National Farmers Union (NFU) estimates more than 18,000 livestock were killed or seriously injured last year."

Why can't people accept that dogs will be dogs & may get carried away around sheep? Dogs should ALWAYS be on a lead around livestock of any kind, especially sheep. Looking at the figures quoted in the article you can hardly blame the farmers!

I don't understand why it's so difficult to understand! Sheep = dogs on lead! Not rocket science.

Lorraine wrote:I don't understand why it's so difficult to understand!  Sheep = dogs on lead!  Not rocket science.

You'd think it would have sunk in by now, wouldn't you?

I hate hearing people say "My dog's okay - he's livestock trained". The only dogs yo can reliably trust around sheep are farmers' sheepdogs & even they are strictly under control!

Its very sad. It is something i would literally not tolerate. Ive often told my neighbor if he sees either of mine worrying something to not hesitate to give it a good whack with a blue stick or shoot. Thankfully they have both been around animals often enough not to bother. Lexi is not up to much bothering these days anyway lol

My "not liked" neighbours GSD dogs do chase though and honestly the only reason they have not been shot yet is the owner is a police man and i think it would be more bother to shoot a "police dog" that it is to chase them off. They chased my stallion the other day and my nice neighbour came to tell me (cause he can see into my field i cant) when i got there he was covered in mud and sweating.

When the foal comes, bad neighbour will be given words and i dont care who he is. If his dogs are on my land, the order to shoot will be given.

Caryll wrote:

Lorraine wrote:I don't understand why it's so difficult to understand!  Sheep = dogs on lead!  Not rocket science.

You'd think it would have sunk in by now, wouldn't you?

I hate hearing people say "My dog's okay - he's livestock trained". The only dogs yo can reliably trust around sheep are farmers' sheepdogs & even they are strictly under control!

Even at that, a farmer would not hesitate to shoot his own dog if it suddenly got a bit to happy. It just seems to be the nature of them to obey though. Saw a collie dog running around two horses the other day, so i stopped and whistled. The dog immediately stopped and ran back to base lol

When I was young - 60 odd years or so ago in North Essex, farming country - dogs were habitually allowed to roam free during the day. It was accepted and no-one thought anything of it (although I remember when one puppy was shot for worrying sheep.) Gradually, over the years and for various reasons, it became less and less acceptable for dogs to be roaming free until nowadays an unaccompanied dog is deemed a stray, and anyone with any humanity tries to catch it and make all efforts to re-unite it with their owner.

Hayley, can I ask something? Where you live, is it still accepted that dogs roam free without their owners?

I must admit that when I got my first dog in 1970, dogs were allowed to roam. However, it was something my parents would never allow as they said it caused too many problems/accidents.

Although I didn't live in a rural setting (middle of London!), my uncle had a farm in Poole, Dorset. Round there, all dogs were kept strictly under control & not allowed to roam. You'd get tge odd one, of course, but they'd soon be put in their place. I suppose it just depended what area you lived in?