Surrey farmer pleads with dog owners to keep control of their pets
Ben Smith who farms in Dorking told us he say over 60 dog attacks last year
A Surrey farmer has been telling us about the financial and emotional distress dog attacks have caused to him
It comes as NFU mutual have put out new data regarding dog attacks ahead of lambing season.
The 2025 UK wide date shows the following:
- UK dog attacks on livestock cost an estimated £1.95m last year, up 10% compared to 2024
- 57% of owners let their dogs off leads in the countryside. With one in 10 admitting their dog has no recall while 44% saying their dogs came back only ‘some’ or ‘most of the time’.
- One in 20 dog owners confessing their dogs had chased livestock
- More than three-fifths of owners felt other dog owners in their area did not treat livestock worrying as a serious issue.
- Almost two thirds of dog owners believe their pets are not capable of causing damage to livestock
"Absolutely barbaric and unnecessary."
Luke Smith farms cattle and lamb near Dorking, he spoke about the emotional damage caused by dog attacks
"It's horrendous to see it face to face, especially and the aftermath because you spend a lot of time caring for those animals.
To see that all being torn apart quite literally in front of you by dogs is is is absolutely barbaric and unnecessary.
They're no different to someone's pet dog that they have out on their walk because they are effectively my group of pets. They might be a lot bigger than having two or three dogs, but at the end of the day we care for them the same. We feed them every day, look after them."
Luke also added that not only was it emotionally devastating, it was also incredibly financially damaging as well
"I will say is into the thousands and the reason for it being difficult to estimate is because actually a lot of it's the unhidden cost. So how much time it takes me to respond to a dog incident, how much time it takes me to treat the animals.
I would say that the general figure of how much it's cost us could be in the last 12 months, ten to 15 thousand pounds."
As we head into lambing season Luke says the message is particularly important now
"You've got a lot of young animals on the ground that are new and that don't necessarily know the way of life. It's like letting a child out on the on the street to go and buy their sweets rather than being a being a teenager.
The problem you've got is they don't know what to do, the mothers get very distressed. And the biggest problem you've got is when these young animals are being chased, it's actually the aftermath, the effect of them not being able to mother back up again to their mother properly
But also it's incredibly distressing for us to see it. We've gone through this whole period of year where we've built up this animal, we've got her pregnant, we've looked after her, we've got this live child out and it's all looking lovely and then all of a sudden a dog comes along and kills it. And that's not nice for anyone."
"Once a dog's got a taste of blood, they will go for it again and again and again."
Luke added that by keeping pets on leads, it's not only protecting the livestock, but also the dog itself.
"I think the thing we must remember here is that farmers have the right to dispatch the dog on site if they're caught worrying the livestock.
The reality of the situation is farmers are allowed to shoot your dog if it is worrying livestock, and that is to protect their livestock, but also to protect people further. Once a dog's got a taste of blood, they will go for it again and again and again.
And this could be a child and that's the thing we need to remember"