Enjoying Spring in the Countryside with Your Dogs

It's perhaps timely that National Pet Awareness Week is in April. It aims to promote responsible pet ownership, and April is a Month when, certainly for dog owners, there is a greater need than ever for a keen sense of responsibility.

Even if you haven't been following Lambing Live you will doubtless know that this month is the height of the lambing season when thousands of new lambs will be in fields and on open land across the country. Sadly this fact passes many dog owners by who let their dogs stray onto land populated by new lambs. This increasingly has disastrous consequences for farmers and dog owners alike. This Farmers Guardian article uses data from a Freedom of Information request to show that dog attacks on sheep are on the increase.  

In our own area we have acres of farmland together with managed moorland. This means that it's not only sheep that are at risk from straying dogs but nesting game birds too. The law provides protection for farmers to destroy animals that interfere with sheep; and gives gamekeepers powers to ban owners who allow their dogs to stray from being on land where there are nesting game birds.



The bottom line is if your dog is not under control in the countryside it could be shot and killed by a farmer quite lawfully. 

Our local newspaper, the Oldham Evening Chronicle, reported this story with a shocking photograph not only of dead lambs but the body of the dog responsible for killing them too. It is probable that the dog was a loved family pet whose family never believed could do  something like that; but as we've said before: dogs are predators and will act like them out of instinct, no matter what breed or size they are.

The law is also clear that in open country dogs must be on a lead no longer than 2 metres  between 1st March and 31st July. There is a good leaflet produced by the Forestry Commission that explains the law on dogs and the countryside here.

So, lets keep our dogs safe and respect farmers' stock, and nesting birds.