Peterborough Farmer Urges Dog Owners to Keep Pets on Leads After “Vicious” Attacks on Sheep
Local farmers are calling for respect during lambing season
A Peterborough farmer is pleading with dog owners to keep their pets on a lead near sheep, after describing the horrific injuries caused by dog attacks.
Judith Jacobs, who owns a farm in the area, said:
“It’s very, very dangerous to ewes that are in lamb. In the past we’ve had really vicious attacks and one day I went to look at my sheep and several had literally had their backends bitten and pulled off. Several had to be put down."
"As farmers, we care for our animals to the utmost degree."
"We don’t like to see them in pain, and we really don’t like suffering, which those sheep were in agony.”
New figures show farm animals worth thirty thousand pounds were attacked by dogs in the East of England last year.
While that’s a drop in this region, the cost of dog attacks on livestock across the UK has risen to nearly two million pounds—up ten percent on the previous year.
Judith says there are not just emotional, but financial impacts too:
“Those sheep would have to be shot and couldn’t go into the food chain because you don’t know a dog’s disease that they carry and the state that they were in, they wouldn’t be fit to eat because they’d been savaged.”
Her advice is simple: “Keep your dog on a lead. Stick to the footpath, pick up your dog poo and be respectful of animals, particularly at this time of year when ewes are very heavily pregnant.”