Hello, Jen. I apologize for my errors. I'm American this doesn't exist here. Sometimes I forget that bridge, that I'm from a different country. I thank you for telling me this.

All farms and livestock areas are considered private property and farmers and herders etc. are NOT going to be happy if they see you and your dogs around their flocks. There are usually proper fences though, so you will have a hard time defending yourself if you are caught on someone's land.

Jade doesn't go off her lead anyway, but if I ever found myself where there was livestock, I'd be certain to put Nigredo on a lead as well... even though I have seen him around chickens, deer, etc. and he isn't the type of dog to chase or harm anything.

I agree with you... I'm far more worried about livestock smashing my dogs teeth in, or stampeding and running someone or something over than I am of him hurting anything.

Exactly the point I was trying to make about my feelings re all this - the safety of my dog (oh and I'm terrified of cows lol!) once wouldn't get off my boat for AGES because cows had appeared overnight outside it and were all LICKING it and it was rocking like mad!

Anyone on here who lives in West Cornwall will know there are vast tracts of land, moors, etc. that are literally littered with old mineshafts. And they do warn of this with regard to you taking care and re your dogs. People still let their dogs run wild and it is not uncommon for the emergency services to come out (bless them all) and do their dammed best to rescue the creature. Hell, horses and even sometimes cars and lorries have fallen through down into these old disused mineworkings in Towns, let alone out on the lovely moors. You can easily find articles about these incidents.

All comes back, for me, to taking responsibility for the safety of your own animals.

Hey Myra, I thought it might help you better understand the issues we have here with livestock and dogs. I can imagine in America there are plenty of places to walk dogs that do not require crossing anyone's land. I'm glad you took it the way I intended it and not as an insult.

Where I used to live (in the Bernese Jura of Switzerland) there are still fields called 'pâturage communal' which are essentially community fields. They belong to the village and farmers can put their cattle, horses etc. there over summer.
Anyone can go in, we used to ride through them on horses and sometimes got into a bit of trouble if curious foals tried to follow us! But no other problems ever on horses. However, we always had to be careful with dogs, because cows don't like dogs. So on occasions we had to leave it and walk somewhere else, but only rarely. Those fields are huge and you never really know where the cows or horses are going to be (unless it's 5pm, that's when they're waiting to be milked by the entrance). Everybody knows that there are cattle in there and enters at their own risk (I can't remember if there are signs..).

It'll be different in every country (or even region), and I'm still not sure which way to think, whether I think it's ok for farmers to shoot dogs on their property or if I think that's a bit extreme. I think I'd only be ok with it if the dog showed actual signs of attacking the livestock. A dog just wandering about doesn't mean he/she is going to attack and could be a lost pet. But I don't know.. I guess it's good I'm not in charge of making decisions!!

Agreed, if the dog is acting aggressively or chasing their stock then the farmer has every right to protect them. It is the owners fault for not properly containing their dog.