Rural Crime Team Report on Recent Livestock Worrying Incident
The Rural Crime Team have been investigating an offence of Livestock Worrying, which took place in the Dorsington area of South Warwickshire.
The incident involved a brown spaniel dog that was being walked off the lead near to fields with sheep. The dog was not under close control and ran off into a neighbouring field containing lambs and ewes. The dog caused chaos and chased the sheep through stock and electric fencing into another field containing more sheep.
When the farmer arrived, he was met with the carnage that the dog had caused over two of his fields. The dog had one of his older ewes corned into fencing
and when the farmer approached the dog it ran off.
and when the farmer approached the dog it ran off.Quick action was taken by the farmer who then rushed to the nearest public footpath where he located the dog and its owner.
The farmer confirmed that several of his ewes had injuries requiring vet treatment and fencing had been damaged that needed to be replaced.
The owner of the dog was later interview by the team for the offence of livestock worrying whereby they fully admitted the offence.
The owner was issued a Condition Caution whereby compensation was paid to the farmer for vet treatment of the injured ewes and for the damaged caused to his fence.
Warwickshire Police are part of national Operation #OpRecall to target and reduce livestock worrying offences.
We would like to take the opportunity to reiterate the following advice to dog owners:
– Always ensure your dog is under control in an area where there are livestock or wild animals.
– Be vigilant during lambing season and always keep your dogs on a lead and avoid any fields with livestock where possible
– If you are letting your dog off the lead, be confident that there are no livestock nearby and that you have sufficient methods to recall your dog in circumstances where they run off, if you’re in any doubt DON’T let the dog off the lead.
– If your dogs have access to outdoor space, at home, unaccompanied, check all fences and boundaries are secure.
Ultimately a landowner by law (as a last resort for protecting their livestock) can shoot a dog which they believe is in the process of worrying sheep or livestock. Police must be notified within 48 hours if this course of action is taken. However, we know that no landowner or farmer wants to be put in that difficult position.
It is the dog owners responsibility for the actions of their dog and we take all reports of livestock worrying seriously.
Here is a past video that our team along with NFU Online created with The Dogfather about the steps you can take to be a responsible dog owner and help keep animals safe – https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=e30fdec50008e642JmltdHM9MTcxMTIzODQwMCZpZ3VpZD0xYzkwMmI2MS1lMzAzLTYzMTMtMTliZS0zODFhZTcwMzY4NzcmaW5zaWQ9NTIyMQ&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=1c902b61-e303-6313-19be-381ae7036877&psq=graham+hall+livestock+worrying&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1hRi1Ha2hnOERmZw&ntb=1