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

[Scrowy]

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.

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.

We had some people actually come onto the farm (past the house and through the yard) to "look at the cows" in the barn on their "ramble". They were swiftly escorted back off private property (and were bloody lucky they were not bitten by one of the gun dogs).
I think some people think farms are public property to just wander about on when they fancy a look at an animal or a nice view.

Namechangetempissue - Wow that is ridiculous. I can't believe people thought it was acceptable to walk into your land to look at the cows without permission. Is this this a common problem you have?

OP - I really feel for you but can I assure you that not all people with dogs are complete idiots. To one of your previous posts I do see my dog as part of my family very much so but I still pick up her poo where ever we go and I certainly don't let her worry animals.

could you leave bowls of antifreeze around? or is that dangerous to sheep too? I really think you will have to shoot a couple of dogs and then word will get around.

thank you for farming delicious lamb!

counterpoint where on earth did you get the idea we use common land for free!? We pay the estate that's owns it for the right to graze a very strictly defined number and type of sheep on it

We graze about 250 sheep on fell land.

The other 750 sheep are in our own fields. The vast majority of those fields have rights of way through.

We are not going to be poisoning or shooting any dogs. For starters that would be illegal unless there was an extremely good reason to shoot a dog. We also just wouldn't want to cause uncesessary pain and suffering to any animal. The vast majority of people are respectful but a persistent minority ruin it for everyone.

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

Because there are no rights to roam all over the land. A right of way is very different. This is common land, owned by op and therefore she has the right to pasture. This is the sort of ignorant attitude op faces. Common land isn't owned by "the people".

Is it a lungworm area? Any cases of Alabama rot? I'm a (responsible) dog lover and signs to this effect would put the fear of God into me and I wouldn't walk there. Its probably not legal though.

but my living room is legally my personal space

Oh I see, thanks for clearing that up.

Although hang on a minute, you own/pay rent for your 'legal' space so I'm not allowed to to shit there. So if the farmer owns/pays rent they're also entitled to shit free space?

Excellent, so glad that you agree

YANBU

Most dog walkers won’t be actually by irresponsibly on purpose, it will be because they don’t know.

I agree with pp who suggested you have leaflets listing the dangers and implications to your animals in your pocket and hand them out to walkers, also put signs up if you can.

Can you move rights of way around field boundaries?

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?

There's always an idiot.

You object to raising animals for food but support keeping an animal in unnatural conditions because you want a pet?

You ignore the ways in which farmers care for the land so you can go "out for a walk"?

I could go on, but you can't argue with stupid.

Unfortunately you can't assume that people waking through your fiends, know the law.
As a dog owner who has lived in the country for decades, I didn't know this! However I would never walk my dog through livestock anyway, but many do, as is their right. It comes down to you to educate these people.

As others have suggested, put up large signs explaining what dog poo can do to your animals.

Sorry my post isn't clear. I meant I didn't know about the dig shot harming livestock. I do know about sticking to footpaths.

However may people will not know either of the above, so put up signs. Our local farmer has signs all over the place, about sticking to the footpaths.

You object to raising animals for food but support keeping an animal in unnatural conditions because you want a pet? That's it in a nutshell

I don't understand why people don't always pick.up their dog's poo. That said I live near a beach and people don't pick up there either. That's why dogs are now banned from the main beaches. A few lazy people spoil it for everybody .

My sister has a problem with walkers on her land/garden who want to follow the river bank. Eventually she sought police advice. They suggested polite requests to stop, notices (which got trashed), and taking photographs of repeat offenders. The latter led to a significant reduction in intruders

It is so sad that this attitude is even more entrenched now that it was when I grew up on a farm
One particular incident comes to mind - we had a large field with a footpath at the bottom next to a stream. Nice walk leading to the village church. We were in the field with outr own dog - loose of course as it was our land and walking through the adjacent wood (open to the field) we discovered a family having a picnic in a nice shady spot. Dog of course being friendly went to 'meet and greet'
Outraged cries of - get your dog away, she is frightening our dog, how dare you spoil our picnic - and when we pointed out it was our land and they were not allowed anywhere except the footpath they would not accept it. This was 50 years ago!
I am afraid the assertion of 'rights' (real or otherwise) has overtaken 'responsibility' and 'consideration'.
Why are some dog-owners (along with parents) so ignorant and entitled that they fail to appreciate there are other people in the world besides them.
Good luck OP - electric fence or muck spreading might deter them.

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 someone's desire for ranging freely wherever they wish, despite there being plenty of suitable areas without livestock, comes before the needs of people earning a living by producing required foodstocks?

Or is it because you are a vegan who doesn't agree with people raising animals for meat, or milk/cheese/butter etc? You may as well say that people should be free to trample through growing vegetables or corn, and to hell with the destroyed crops.

Ungrazed fell. The reason we have some much lovely land for walking around is due to grazing by sheep, cattle, horses and rabbits. I suppose we could replace the grazers with vegans wielding scythes

I have no objections to farmers if they raised their animals as pets - I have every right to object if they then slaughter them either for pleasure or for money. Animals have a right to life too.

As for those of you so quick to give up common land to profit-making farmers; shame on you for letting down our future generations and their enjoyment of green spaces.

Counter you might want need to read up on common land and commoners. Ignorance is not bliss.

One of my friends lost 6 ewes and about two dozen lambs due to someones lovely doggy,

Counterpoint you are hilarious

Many thanks for coming into the thread and providing a working example of precisely what the problem is.

I think you misunderstand what is meant by common land.
Here is a handy Wikipedia link if you wish to educate yourself en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_land

Can you electric fence up the non footpath fields?

For the fields with foot paths, can you sort of fence in the footpath?

Shoot any unleashed dogs...

The shitty atttitude of people going into fields with no ROW and having dogs off lead with livestock is exactly why some land owners obstruct ROW.

The few spoiling it for the many.

Could you pay off local vet to spread a fake rumour dogs have got ill off that lan?

I doubt an electric fence would stop most people. It would also be completely impractical to fence many of our fields in half, and as stated above some of it is common land so we wouldn't be allowed to fence any way.

And why should we have to?

We just want people to stick to the countryside code. It's really that simple.