Dogsey

Maybe the owners should be put down rather than the dogs, because it is HER fault not the dogs!!! If they hadn't been allowed to roam then they would never have attacked the sheep.

Maybe she is one of those who think dogs are far more important than sheep. We had a few on the 'should farmers be allowed to shoot your dog' thread who did.

If so she is sadly learning otherwise now. The death penalty has been banished in the UK for a long time now TW! So not much chance of that. But I think, yes, the owner should be held accountable and the matter treated with the gravity it deserves. Perhaps if enough owners have their dogs put down and have to pay hefty fines or even go to prison, eventually the 'message' will filter down that you cannot just let your dogs roam free in the countryside wherever you like. And if they love their dogs they will do all they can to keep them safe.

'The death penalty has been banished in the UK for a long time now TW'

More's the pity in some cases
I know sometimes dogs get out and things go terribly, horribly wrong, but most of these types of cases involve owners who really couldn't care less, and will go out and get another dog, maybe they should be banned for life from keeping dogs, having said that there are ways round it, on that dog warden programme a while back there were a couple of people on there who had been banned but still got another dog.

Funny I was just thinking about that. I mean it IS the owner in most cases who is at fault. Yet the dog gets no chance to 'never worry livestock again'. It is shot or put down in a lot of cases.

But unless the stupid owner does get a lifetime ban on owning dogs, what's to stop them taking other dogs to another field with livestock in it? After all, in my view, these people are reckless and a bit stupid. So the likelihood is that they probably would if they had another dog.

When I lived in the west country and used to walk along the river Lemon most days where there are fields nearby with cows (but you knew if they were in there) it seemed to me to be people with dogs (usually big dogs) they couldn't control well on their leads that sought out these type of places to just let their dogs run free without a care for anyone or anything else. Usually just opened their car doors in the parking spaces too and let the dogs loose as soon as they stopped. Some of them nowhere near their dogs most of the time.

I knew a bloke who had a very nasty GSD who used to walk up on the fields above Paignton very early in the morning. I'd had a run in with him and when telling other dog owners about him I wasn't the only one. They said he has had so many complaints that he takes the dog out really early to try to avoid other dogs.

Well that's all very well if you KNOW he will be up there isn't it? I'm an earlybird too. He was in the habit of being a long way off from his dog and would smartly turn and start walking further away if anyone shouted at him or his dog. Totally irresponsible owner and demonstrating to me that he didn't have a hope in hell of getting his dog under control and knew it.

I am now thinking about what happens if someone DOES get a lifetime ban or a 5yr ban or whatever on keeping a dog. And they've got more than one dog but the incident responsible for the ban only applied to one of their dogs.

Do they have their other dogs removed from them? If so I feel really sorry for those dogs - not even involved in any incident where they've been aggressive or vicious. I wonder what happens in that case.

Was only saying to someone the other day, the reason I've not been on the country park for so long was because of the bloody collie. We both ended up wondering if everyone else had stopped going that end because of him, he just used to sit there and wave his stick at the dog when it caused trouble. So he got his wish really didn't he, his own personal dog walking fiefdom!!! Was saying I just couldn't be like that, the minute Keshi caused bother to that lab, I was there apologising and she got put on a line. See so much of the open car door and let the dog go mentality these days. Lets face it, lots of times if the dog does cause damage to livestock, it often isn't found till the dog and owner have disappeared anyway and very hard to prove.
Where Taran lives there is trouble with a dog sheep worrying, and at one stage he was in the frame, luckily they were able to prove where he was at the time, with witnesses, they still haven't found the dog responsible.

Geezus! Phew I am glad it was all sorted.

You've heard me many times mention old Sally, my GSD. Well her mum was shot at by a farmer neighbour when she was out loose and up on a ridge above his farmland near Godalming, Surrey. She wasn't killed. She had a shoulder wound.

However I have to say that her owner (my then partner) and his parents (who all lived on and worked the racehorse stud there proper Irish farming and horse people and who bred dogs too) didn't hold any grudge against their farmer neighbour whatsoever. They accepted that the dog was where it shouldn't have been and that the farmer was within his rights and that they were very lucky she hadn't been shot dead. I expect he could easily have killed her if he'd wanted to.

I think that's the difference between 'real' country folk and townies who go into the countryside just to walk their dogs. They understand the 'codes' better. T'was much the same down in West Penwith in Cornwall.

Lots of sheep around here, and I keep my girls onlead when anywhere near a field of them. If they got into the field and chased the sheep then the farmer has every right to shoot them in my opinion. The sheep are his livelihood and the girls are MY responsibiity and it would be MY fault if they caused harm. They've been in fields with cows and horses and never bothered whatsoever, but poultry and sheep are an entirely different matter. I would rather be safe than sorry. Kept both Mabs and Keshi onlead when first passing the fields on the way to the country park yesterday as it has been so long that I have been that way, and Keshi has never been. I was able to judge what they were like with horses, (fine) but decided to keep Keshi online until I had her recall as near 100% as I could. Its not worth the risk in my opinion.

Not in the UK so a dangerous dog has a different meaning. Here it's that they've attacked domestic critters be it cat or dog. Sophie it was both, afraid of her own shadow and I all but keep her muzzled in public now...Away from all other critters except our other dog Callie...