Dog walking alert after sheep attack

2:44pm Friday 27th June 2008

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DOG walkers are being urged to keep their canines on leads after a sheep was savagely attacked while grazing in a field.

Our monthly farming diary writer Jayne Knowles, of High Borrow Bridge Farm, near Selside, found one of her livestock in a private field near Kendal, with horrifying injuries to its face.

It appears that a dog is to blame for the attack and, in the light of this, the National Farmers’ Union has appealed to the public to make sure their pets are under control while out walking in the countryside.

NFU spokesman Carl Hudspith said: “It is a big problem in this area and we are always asking the general public to keep dogs on leads for their own safety as well as livestock.

“Livestock are the farmers’ income, but also their well being is very important to farmers and injuries like these are very upsetting for the farmers.

“The countryside is there for the general public, and the farming community are the custodians for it, and it is important, especially in Cumbria, that it is open to everyone so it can be enjoyed. But keeping dogs on leads is paramount and we want people to be aware of this.”

“If their dog runs off into a field of say, cows or bulls, especially if they have calves, the danger to the dog owner, as well as the animals involved, is very high.

“For example, if the dog goes after a herd of cows or bulls, and you get in the way of a stampede.”

The incident has certainly shocked Mrs Knowles, who believes dog walkers need to be more careful when out in the countryside.

Mrs Knowles bathed the nose of the sheep before taking this photograph, but she said: “When we found her it was like something out of a horror movie.”

She added: “You can see by the wound on the top of its nose has been attacked by a dog. There is another puncture wound under its chin where the dog has had hold of the sheep’s nose in its mouth.

“The bottom jaw is badly ripped and very swollen to the point where she cannot eat, so we have to give her Lectade (a food supplement).

Now Mrs Knowles says they can only wait and hope that the sheep will pull through.

”She has been injected with penicillin,” she said. “There is nothing else we can do for her now, and we just hope she will live. She will have to cope with infection and shock. She has two young lambs so they will have to be bottle-fed to help her.

“This is why farmers would like to see dogs kept on leads. This sheep has been through hell and it turns your stomach when we find them in such a state.”