Dogsey

Were these dog owners newcomers to countryside and countryside ways then? Living down in Penwith I was WELL aware every day of what the consequences could be for my dog if I let her 'stray' onto farmed land.

Hell, I have a pal whose dog was shot in Guildford for being within range of worrying sheep.

Yes, poor dog, for having such dumb owners. And I do think it is a bit 'sensational' to refer to a 15 month old dog as a 'puppy'.

About time this ridiculous 'license to kill' is abolished! It's disgusting. The farmer should have the same rights as everyone else - if a dog damages his property/kills live stock he should SUE the owner for damages, NOT KILL THE DOG.

I also agree with Moobli on this one, the farmer was way OTT in his behaviour. If the dog didn't have a reliable recall or wasn't sound around livestock then yes he should've been on a lead, but equally I don't think the farmer had just cause to shoot the dog. The hen didn't even die so it can't have been that "worried", certainly not enough to warrant shooting the dog that's for sure.

Maybe the farmer had just had one dog too many chasing his livestock, we have it a lot at the park, the shepherd's always muttering "bl***dy dogs, not all dog owners are irresponsible but we all get tarred with the same brush.

I agree with Azz that the farmer should have asked for compensation not shot the dog, I would think the owners would have learned their lesson by the incident.

The 'one dog too many' comment is very likely why farmers are allowed to shoot and kill dogs that are threatening their livestock.

It's easy to sit in our nice cosy homes and condemn them. Looking around at some of the threads, we are not so tolerant when out of control dogs run up to ours when we are out and about and most definitely not tolerant when they run up and start trying to attack our own dogs.

I wonder how tolerant we would be with a farm full of animals to care for?

I grew up next to a farm and monetary compensation for animals killed does not cover the financial loss to a farmer. Having known a farmer who was affected by the small F&M outbreak in 2007, he was only compensated for the cows that were culled - nothing for the fact that he was unable to use that land for a year (which also affected the rest of his farm as he was unable to use a substantial amount of his land for rotation because it was quarantined off), or the fact that many of those cows were in calf - a "market price" compensation figure is not what a farmer loses when his livestock are killed.
It is sad that a dog was killed, it would have been a better ending for it to be caught and the owners to have learnt a lesson in another way, but we don't know how the dog was acting - it could have cornered 5 chickens and about to rip their heads off. The chickens weren't killed, but it doesn't say if any were injured. The article is very much geared from the owners and "poor puppy" POV so who knows what the full story would have been from the farmer's side. In the heat of the moment, he doesn't know if the dog with a chicken in its mouth will drop it safely or chomp down and kill it, he doesn't know if trying to physically catch it will wind it up into a frenzy (infact, we don't even know if he did try to catch it, again with the bias towards the big bad farmer and poor ickle puppy). The way the article is written, we don't even know if he realised it was someone's pet until after he shot it - with no owner in sight, and it being a scruffy looking breed, he may have assumed it was a stray in dire need of a meal.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the dog deserved it, but the law is the law and the onus falls on the owners to control their dog and the farmer shouldn't have to "come and say" to them to put it on lead.

We don't have a lot of background info on this story, we have no idea if this farmer's livestock had been targeted before.

I know several chicken keepers who have had a neighbour's dog or a dog walking by clear the fence and attack the hens, the hens owner has heard the commotion and rushed out and has really struggled to get hold of the dog, resulting in several hens been killed in a very short space of time. Hens are a flock animal, where there is one there is bound to be more. It is easy to suggest that a farmer should simply sue, yes he could get financial compensation for the animals he lost but he has a duty of care to prevent his animals from being shredded by a dog who is simply doing what its instinct tell us.

TBH I'm a little confused by this story. The owner wonders why the farmer didn't just tell them to put their dog on a lead, which suggests that he would have been close enough to see them, so why couldn't they see that they were so close to a farm? I'm also surprised that they never heard the shot, they only knew what had happened when the farmer rang to tell them. If Max was racing off towards a farm, with me running after him madly trying to call him back and then I heard a shot, I would know what had happened

Brierley ... I do know what you are saying with "It's easy to sit in our nice cosy homes and condemn them. <snip>
I wonder how tolerant we would be with a farm full of animals to care for?>>

But I am a shepherd's wife, so know what it is like with a farm full of animals to care for I asked hubby what he thought of this story and he also thought that the farmer should have made some attempt to stop/catch the dog and said the story didn't really give enough detail to say what level of threat the dog was to the hens (or in fact whether the farmer was a poultry farmer). Personally, I still believe it is a bit OTT to shoot a dog for chasing a hen

That's the point really. We don't know what happened or the background to it.

I imagine your hubby would deal with the situation dependent on how good, bad or ugly it was. Maybe the farmer did the same, or maybe he was too trigger-happy, or maybe ............... so many maybes.

All the article tells us is that a dog owner was too complacent and as a result a dog is no longer here. A terrible situation for all concerned and one where, no matter the rights and wrongs, the clock can't be put back - if only!

It's yet another reminder to us all to take care and be vigilant no matter where we are walking. If that poor dog's death achieves this even in a small way, then it wasn't totally wasted, but what a tragedy. His poor owners must really be distraught and when the 'blame everyone else' passes, as it will, they will be racked with guilt. Grief is one of the worst emotions and to couple this with feelings that they will surely feel at some point that death could have so easily been avoided, these poor people are in for a very, very rough time .

Have to say the dog should have been kept on a lead or had recall, sounds like the owners let him off and failed to keep calling him back, also 15 months is an adult dog not a puppy

I live in a rural location with sheep to the back and cows and sheep at the bottom of our track, I have 2 Adult Border Collies and an 11 month old and all 3 are supervised, walked on leads when away from us and all have excellent recall beacuse I have worked hard at the that due to our rural location and we had "tourists" walking their dogs in a field where the sheep were onthe other side of a rise and they thought it was fun for their dogs to run at the sheep, have to say I gave them some abuse as the sheep were in lamb thankfully they left before any damage was done but have to say the farmer was in the right his land, his animals an unaccompanied dog and why should he try and appraoch a strange dog and try to get it under control no thats the owners responsibility