Farmers worry dog attack epidemic will halt lambing season

KentOnline / KMTV

The number of farm animals in the south east severely injured or killed in dog attacks last year went up by 23%, but a new Bill aims to give police more power to stop this is making its way through Parliament.  Abby Hook reports.

Transcript

00:00Cruel and dangerous. The words from Kent Farmers is the cost of dog attacks has risen by more

00:08than 20%. New data from the National Farmers Union say farm animals in the southeast worth

00:15an estimated £139,000 were severely injured or killed in 2024. That's an increase of 23%

00:25or £25,000 on the previous year. For sheep farmers in Romney Marsh they say the problem

00:32comes around every year and have experienced first hand both the financial and emotional

00:37implications when a sheep is attacked and left.

00:41I'm usually pretty strong at this but I cried. But I cried with anger because that is so

00:48cruel. That is animal cruelty at its worst. Walking away from an injured animal. That

00:55person could have made an anonymous phone call. Because of the location of where the sheep were

01:00at the time, we were only checking them every other day. Them sheep could have been like that

01:05for two days. NFU Mutual's new survey revealed that in fact 57% of people let their dogs off

01:13lead in the countryside. Just 40% said their pet always comes back. 43% believed their dog

01:21could be capable of killing or injuring livestock. I don't understand why people are not seeing the

01:28danger. It's all right. My dogs are fantastic. But I wouldn't dream of taking my dogs to the

01:33farm. I just wouldn't. I take my dogs to places where there is fields for them to run and no

01:39livestock. Why can people not see even the perfect dog can turn? Farmers are legally

01:47permitted to protect their livestock and have steps they can take if a dog is harming their

01:52flock. Shooting a dog is an absolute last resort. It's a horrible, horrible thing to do. It's not

01:59something you want to do because you know that's somebody's pride and joy quite often. But there

02:04can be times when there is nothing else you can do. We've had times when dogs have come back and

02:12come back and come back and have killed and killed and killed and in the end it's the only thing you

02:18can do. We have had times when it's been very bad and to the point where we really were questioning

02:25ourselves as to whether we were being irresponsible keeping sheep because it was just putting them in

02:32danger. I mean that was a long time ago but that time we lost 130 sheep to dog attacks.

02:40The National Sheep Association recommends that farmers only shoot dogs at a last resort.

02:46The legality depends on whether a farmer had a lawful excuse for shooting the dog in that

02:51circumstance. But as lambing season approaches Kent's farmers are hoping the message to keep

02:57dogs on leads stays. Abbey Hook for KMTV.

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