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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to think I should be ok to exercise my well behaved dog wherever I like in fields

499 replies

Scrowy · 22/09/2017 21:39

Grin

I'm not BU because my dog is a farm dog and the fields are my fields.

Sadly however the local dog owners seem to think that our fields (some with footpaths, some without) are fair game and that they have an equal right to use them as they see fit.

This week we have politely asked 6 people with loose dogs to remove themselves from the pasture we have just separated some lambs into. There is no footpath in that field but it has a nice view. Hmm

During lambing time this year we lost 4 lambs and 1 sheep to sheep worrying. About 5 years ago one dog killed 24 lambs in one go. Every week we are aware of minor incidents of sheep worrying, fortunatly most don't result in death but do always result in stress on the animals.

Also this week we have sent some older sheep to slaughter. Out of 30 of them 24 of them were condemned due to Echinococcosis, a disease passed on to sheep from dog poo and only identifiable at slaughter.

Neosporosis is another disease passed on from dog poo do cattle. It causes the cattle to abort their calves.

Letting your dogs poo on farmland is directly putting farms out of business.

Letting your dogs 'play' with sheep causes death, even if your dog doesn't actually maul something at the time.

You wouldn't walk into a shop, knock down a display and break stuff without expecting to have to pay for damages. Why do people think that the countryside is fair game?

I'm all for live and let live, I want people to enjoy the countryside and support it. I also want people to realise that it's not just there for their amusement, that some people are trying to make (an increasingly small and desperate) living from it.

OP posts:
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5
Witchend · 22/09/2017 23:20

Why should your money-making ventures as a farmer who grows and slaughters innocent animals have precedence over the rest of the population out for a walk with or without their pet?

In that case you won't mind the notice I've put on your garden "Dogs' toilet. Poop-a-scoop bin through letterbox."

ladybird69 · 22/09/2017 23:23

I haven't read the whole thread but used to be in a similar situation. I didn't want to shoot the dogs just their ignorant owners. We never found an answer I hope you do.

Mittens1969 · 22/09/2017 23:24

Sorry what does AFAIK mean? It's another acronym I don't understand.

Re the dogs and your sheep, YADNBU. Written warnings about shooting dogs that worry your sheep would be a good deterrent. Although I get that things have changed from when I was a child and we lived in fear of our dog chasing sheep.

AnneGrommit · 22/09/2017 23:29

Urgh entitled dog owners seem so commonplace now, maybe because so many more people have dogs than twenty years ago. I don't know what the answer is but I hope some of them at least read this thread and cop onto themselves.

user1479335914 · 22/09/2017 23:32

I feel so sorry for you about this, it must be so frustrating and invasive to have idiots come on to your land where you are trying to make your living, and wrecking your efforts and infecting your livestock. In the area I live, this is a problem and it often appears in the local press, but it seems to have no effect. The trouble is that nobody believes their dog is the problem. I have actually witnessed a woman's dog run ahead of her into a herd of cows about to calf and the animals got agitated. When she caught up with her dog, I told her that it had gone among the cattle and worried them, but she point blank refused to believe it, and I got the usual earful of abuse. People are extraordinarily subjective about their dogs. What is the NFU's take on this? Regulations need to be tightened up to prevent it, on animal welfare grounds as well as to safeguard farmers' livings.

StaplesCorner · 22/09/2017 23:43

I am not 100% sure I would be clear on that was your land/land being used by sheep or cattle. I know what you mean about signs, people do tend to take them down (as they are arseholes) but I definitely think articles in the local paper, maybe on your local social media etc might help, something like "Spotlight on livestock deaths due to dog poo" - ?

icclemunchy · 22/09/2017 23:49

I have a pony who doesn't like dogs, he will actively chase them down, so he is deliberately kept in the field furthest away from the footpath (and it's a corner field so no way to be "confused" into walking through) at least once every couple of months i have to shout at someone who's wandered across 3 fields from the footpath to get there and one woman actually turned up on the yard to demand he was moved because every time she lets her dog run round he chases it trying to kick it. She was utterly bewildered when told she should be there - her exact words were but it's a field!! - and was off to tell the police we wouldn't move him so her dog could have a run Hmm

Some people are just twunts whatever you do. You can borrow the pony if you like though Grin

yorkshireyummymummy · 23/09/2017 00:28

Mittens as far as I know.

Scrowy I very much like the idea of putting signs up saying that a dog disease ( Google and find something suitable and put the name on the sign) has been discovered in this field........
OR if you can afford it do what a PP' s sister did and put up a bloody big fence like a roofless tunnel through the wood. Locals will complain but you are well within your rights. If it's only a two minute walk it might no be horrendously costly. And put barbed wire on the top. And electrify it- and put CCTV up. You would make a fortune from YouTube posting people walking down and bouncing off the fencing like a pinball shouting owwww owwww dropping their padlock cutters! Bastards wouldn't come back then!
I wish you good luck and really hope you get something sorted.

woodenplank · 23/09/2017 00:50

Why should your money-making ventures as a farmer who grows and slaughters innocent animals have precedence over the rest of the population out for a walk with or without their pet?

So I guess you would be happy if I wandered into your living room and did a big shit on your floor. After all, why should your claim to an area of living space take precedence over my need to poop? (with or without my pet!)

Tamberlane · 23/09/2017 01:01

Poisioned land signs? It might help jolt people into keeping the dogs on a leash or at least close by if they think their dogs in danger if wandering freely.

Seeingadistance · 23/09/2017 01:11

Make big signs with photographs of the sheep which have been killed by dogs. I grew up on a farm, and can assure those that seem neither to understand nor care, that once seen, the sight of sheep torn apart by dogs never leaves you! Hopefully, that would be a salutary lesson for the fuckwits.

If that's too harsh, then maybe see if the local press would be interested in running a piece about the dangers to livestock, and dogs, by dog poo and letting dogs run wild in fields used by livestock.

oldlaundbooth · 23/09/2017 01:14

Totally agree op.

YANBU.

Keep Britain's farms safe!

SparklyUnicornPoo · 23/09/2017 01:16

Probably a stupid question but is the dog poo still dangerous to sheep and cattle if I pick it up as soon as dog does it?

I don't walk my dog through fields with any livestock in but there is a footpath we use that occasionally has sheep on, I can see them long before we get to that bit so we adjust our route if they are there, but now I'm worried he might have left germs in the grass when I've picked up his poo!

itsbetterthanabox · 23/09/2017 01:21

Aren't you killing these sheep anyway? So you are worried they might die a different way? Hmm

JigglyTuff · 23/09/2017 01:22

I'd go for big graphic photos to ask people to keep dogs on lead/pick up poo.

I have friends who do stick and flick in woodland

MehMehAndMeh · 23/09/2017 01:34

Alabama rot is quite lethal (no current known cure) and although rare there have been cases right across the UK. You could warn against it and fence in the paths, so the right of way is still there but not the access to the rest of the area. Add those to warnings that dogs may be shot if found worrying and electric fence signs and that should deter all but the most determined arse hole and there's CCTV that should put them off.

emma8t4 · 23/09/2017 01:34

I know it would be expensive but could you not fence the wood so they were only able to access the footpath to walk,

Seeingadistance · 23/09/2017 01:54

Aren't you killing these sheep anyway? So you are worried they might die a different way? hmm

Would you suggest to someone that instead of taking their ill, elderly cat to the vet to be put to sleep that they give it to their neighbour's dogs so it can be ripped limb from limb, quite literally? After all, you could say, it's just a different way of dying! Hmm

hellsbells99 · 23/09/2017 02:18

A farmer near me is closing paths due to problems with dog poo
www.chesterstandard.co.uk/home/2017/09/17/gallery/support-for-mickle-trafford-farmer-s-decision-to-close-footpath-to-protect-his-cattle-95330/

counterpoint · 23/09/2017 02:22

"So I guess you would be happy if I wandered into your living room and did a big shit on your floor."

But my living room is legally my personal space.

In your reply, you omitted the quote I was commenting on which was made the vital difference and makes nonsense of your simplistic living room comparison and indeed suggests that the OP is DBU.

The land being used by the farmer (fell) for free (but to make money from slaughter) is not their own but common land. Therefore the farmer has no right to shot other people's' dogs which are being walked on common land.

counterpoint · 23/09/2017 02:29

The question we should be asking is why farmers are allowed to use common land for their own profit. And on top, to tell us they will shoot our pets if we don't follow their rules which maximise their profits.

counterpoint · 23/09/2017 02:35

I would use the same argument to ask why fisherman would be supported if they shot every dolphin swimming near "their" fishing grounds which was likely to affect their profits.

This farmer (op) is using common land for free. And complaining that we dare to roam.

AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered · 23/09/2017 04:12

Ignore the couple of bonkers posters OP. Some people really are thick as mince ConfusedHmm

LakieLady · 23/09/2017 04:33

They should go back to showing public information films on tv explaining the country code to people, like they did when I was a kid. Then some of them might not be so bloody ignorant.

There was a big sheep worrying problem where I live earlier this year (one farmer lost 24 sheep) and there were a couple of news items on local tv about it, it seemed to stop after that. The mentality of these people is beyond me, I've had 2 dogs that have a high prey drive and they always got put on the lead if we were within 100 yards of livestock (or poultry, wildfowl or footballs).

I had no idea about the disease from poo though, I'll start picking up in the countryside now, so thanks for that.

SabineUndine · 23/09/2017 05:00

counterpoint the farmers have a legal right to graze livestock on common land that has existed for about 1000 years. You epitomise every arrogant and selfish dog owner by wanting your dear little doggie to be treated as superior to the important part of the economy that livestock farming is.