To get the dog to bite me so it will be pts?

[midnightlurker]

Dog coming into my field and attacking my horses. One minor injury, several incidents of damage to the rugs (like little coats) they wear. Now a chunk out of one hind leg requiring vet attention. This dog has tasted blood, it will not stop here. We have beefed up the fencing as much as we can - rented land...

When I phoned the Police they were bloody useless. If we see it in action they will come but they will not take the dog as it is not a human it is attacking. And I can't legally hit/hurt it to get it off my horse.... So aibu to lie in wait for it then pull it off my horse so it gets me? Then it is a dangerous dog and has attacked a human, so the Police have to act.

Cannot see any other way to protect my horses :(.

And if the owner is reading this - STOP it! Put it on a lead!!!! It is not funny or clever to injure livestock.

wait for the dog to appear, then look for the owners nearby.

Brilliant idea! Bet the OP never thought of that . . .

Not the dog's fault. Poorly behaved dog=bad owner.

All this 'not the dogs fault' What do you suggest OP does - let it eat her horses??? Suppose this dog gets out at night too and a horse is attacked and has to stand injured overnight? not on.

Totally unreasonable.

Electric fencing, preferably double layered? Sorry if its already been suggested. I have horses and land and would not be happy at this either... it's not easy to just up and leave as land is hard to find. ... and before anyone gets the arse, I have four dogs too!

...or course my preference is that owner gets an unholy zapping from the fence trying to retrieve badly behaved mutt.

So I will lose a week's pay to wait out there by the entry point (in sub zero temperatures) and get a good picture. Plus it has already cost me a vets bill. ... all because of an aggressive, dangerous family pet.

er, how's it gonna conveniently bite you if you can't even find time to ID it?

& how do you know it's a family pet?

All this 'not the dogs fault' What do you suggest OP does - let it eat her horses???

No. Harm the owners not the dog though. I hate any animal being harmed unnecessarily, including the horse in this situation. The dog should be removed from the owners and given to people that actually give a shit about responsible dog owning.

I feel shooting the dog, or encouraging the dog to attack a human are both wrong. Deal with it with the owners. And shove a verbal firecracker up the police's arses to deal with it.

How about electric fencing....not to expensive and half a day to put up, but will definately stop the dog......

Horses are classed as livestock and grazing as agricultural land in this instance, from the link previously posted:-

DEFRA say "The main countryside rule is - DOGS MUST NEVER WORRY LIVESTOCK. Under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 the owner, and anyone else under whose control the dog is at the time, will be guilty of an offence if it worries livestock on agricultural land. The dog must have been attacking or chasing livestock in such a way that it could reasonably be expected to cause injury or suffering or, in the case of females, abortion or the loss or diminution of their produce. An offence is not committed if at the time of the worrying the livestock were trespassing, the dog belonged to the owner of the land on which the trespassing livestock were and the person in charge of the dog did not cause the dog to attack the livestock. The definition of 'livestock' includes cattle, sheep, goats, swine, horses and poultry. Game birds are not included."

Section 1 of the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 makes it an offence for a dog to be at large, ‘that is to say not on a lead or otherwise under close control’, in a field or enclosure containing sheep. It is also an offence for dogs to attack or chase livestock, and farmers are permitted to shoot dogs that are worrying, or are about to worry, farm animals. This is outlined in the Animals Act 1971 section 9, which also states that the farmer is not liable to compensate the dog’s owner in such circumstances. Any dog which is not a working dog can be regarded as worrying livestock merely by being off lead and not under close control in a field or enclosure where there are sheep. A landowner could shoot such a dog, if it can be proved that the action was necessary to protect livestock and that it was reported to the police within 48 hours. The dog's owner can then be subject to all the above penalties too - except being shot, of course. So be careful!

Electric fencing doesn't stop my dog, she jumps through or over it. It's a mild shock.

Horses are NOT livestock.

You keep yelling this, but it is not true, as proved by the quote from the 'Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953' quoted twice now. Perhaps you could read that.

We owned a horse - when we had an issue it was not classed as livestock under the law as it we were keeping it as a pet and it was not being used to plough a field, or kept for meat. There was no agricultural purpose to having the horse.

My understanding now (and the understanding of everyone involved in our situation) was that these acts refer to horses, but only those that are used in the above ways. It does not cover "all horses". Same goes with planning applications etc. When it comes down to it, most are not covered by the law as "livestock", they are pets.

Those horses are not being kept to graze the land - they are being kept as family pets. This is where there was a difference for us.

I really hope that one of the more 'oh poor dog just let it kill the horses' responses belongs to the owner in question

Why does it mean that because we don't want you to harm the dog, we want the dog to harm the horse? Funnily enough, it is possible to love dogs AND horses. Just put up an electric fence OR find out who the stupid owner is, it's not the dog's fault.

If you rtft, you'd see that my post was in answer to a poster who said that horses are livestock and all land they're grazed on is agricultural. Which is not correct.

I wish it was as it'd save a lot of money and hassle for horsey farmers' wives....!

How frustrating :(

I think I would make a nuisance of myself with the police; quoting all the above legislation and refusing to take no for an answer.

If the owners aren't around I might also try to entice the dog with sausages, put it on a slip lead and take it to the dog warden every time.

Rifle lessons might also cross my mind...

I have indeed read the whole thread, and you have insisted twice now that 'horses are not livestock', when, clearly written in the act, also quoted twice,they are.

I'm so sorry Midnight - your poor horses.

Some advice from the British Horse Society here: www.bhs.org.uk/safety-and-accidents/common-incidents/dog-attacks

I also agree that you should ring the dog warden for advice. Ours is very helpful.

Once you've got the dog IDed, get the police involved. They absolutely have a responsibility.

In rural areas I've seen plenty of signs saying "dogs found amongst the sheep will be shot!" And "dogs found in the stables will be shot"

Have you got a gun?

And no, they're not considered livestock unless they're being kept as livestock - applies to planning and land use so I would also imagine it applies if you were to shoot the dog

StrangeLookingParasite Horses are classed as livestock IF they are used for agricultural purposes or if they are going to become horse meat. The horses the OP is referring to are not livestock, they are pets.

So when the DDA says horses - it refers to livestock variety, not the pets variety.

I had another thought about this last night - assuming you've seen the dog - can you email the local vets and animal shelters with a description and explain the problem. They may very well know the owners and be able to act as a mediator to get the problem solved.

If uts attacking your horse, hit it hard with a shovel

I love the "just put up electric fencing" - it costs a fortune to do it properly and to fence even a small area takes bloody ages. No, it's not the dogs fault, but equally it's not Midnight's fault either and having have a dog chase my horses while the owner watches and says "he's only playing" I completely understand where she's coming from. What the answer is I really don't know but it isn't as simple as some people like to make out.

Lots of notices up around the fields may be a start saying that any dog found chasing will be taken to the dog warden, the owner will be liable for bills etc might help but tbh I doubt it. Sympathies Midnight and I hope you can get it sorted soon.

We had a similar situation and caught the dog in our field several times, not biting but harassing the horses, chasing them around and making them very stressed. The dog came from a house a few hundred yards up the road and other house owners had tried asking them if they could please keep it on their own property (it was allowed to roam freely across the road, into peoples gardens, defecating on their lawns etc...) The dog itself was a nice animal and very friendly but basically didn't know any better. In the end we decided to put it in one of our stables with a bowl of water and some food and waited for them to call round asking if we'd seen it. In the mean time we had called the dog warden and explained to them that we had found this dog and captured it and given it food and water but didn't know who it belonged to as there was no ID on it but said that we would be happy to hold it for a couple of days in case anyone came round looking for it. It took the owners two days and when they did finally turn up we acted surprised and said it was just as well them came round when they did as the dog warden was coming out later to collect it as it had no ID so we'd not been able to find out who's it was. It never happened again......

Oh dear...