Sheep worrying, called someone out on social media. I'm sure I wasn't BU but usually don't get involved.

[needastrongone]

So someone I'm 'friends' with on FB put an 'amused' comment today about her dog disappearing today, then reappearing about 10 minutes later chasing a pack of sheep....and wishing she'd videoed it...

12 people were amused by it...

I rarely make comments on FB but couldn't stop myself commenting that the sheep could have aborted and the dog been shot and that really wasn't funny....all very politely....

I know I'm not BU but I'm astounded folk thought this was in any way amusing or acceptable.

Seriously, was I BU? Was I?

Shifty maybe you should watch this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-43273531/farmers-on-looking-after-livestock-in-freezing-conditions

Well I'm a townie but have enough common sense to know that anyone's Dogs terrifying the life out of farm animals is fucking stupid and bloody evil.

I know you don't know where this was OP but it would be good if you could find out so the Farmer could be given the heads up about the open gate and about the twat with the Dog.

I'm a townie, have never had a dog, but even I know you don't let dogs worry sheep. What planet is this woman on!?!

I expect they would laugh like fun if the dog was shot.

turnip It's been hellish this week. We can't even use the quad bike to get to the sheep. DS has used an old piece of tin sheet to drag the feed bags out. The wind blew snow drifts into the ewes' sheds.

Tell your friends via Facebook page it is so not funny and serious that the farmer can legally shoot the dog on sight. You may want to tell the farmer and police too. Perhaps link the Facebook post or report to RSPCA - she sounds like she'll never be responsible but the thought of her dog being shot or taken away/ on a black list may curb her behaviour next time

We are coming into lambing season.
I speak as a farmers daughter and things are hard enough without a dog worrying sheep and risking unborn lambs and the farmers livelihood.
She's an idiot.
Well done for speaking up.

People like this really piss me off. If you can't control your dog off lead it shouldn't be off lead and if you don't understand about sheep worrying then you shouldn't be walking your dog near livestock full stop. My house backs onto fields and last year I had to yell at a group of teenagers and their dog that were chasing the sheep. Got a mouthful of abuse. So I walked to the farmhouse that owns the fields, they moved pretty sharpish when he appeared thankfully although the next day while out walking I saw a dead lamb. We live fairly rural in Wales so you would think people would know about this.

My Facebook feed is full of posts about idiots letting their dogs worry sheep!
I live rurally and I have friends who have farms and are gearing up for lambing season.
I just can't get over how your "friend" thought it was funny.
She's clearly a complete imbecile.
If she was my friend I would have given her both barrels and then deleted her.
Then again my friends wouldn't be so stupid!

Sarah Ours are due to start mid month. We've got the triplet and twin ewes in.

I farmer near us did shoot a dog last year. He'd lost a wee and a lamb and knew he would loose at least another two lambs as the ewe was mother the twins.
The dog had caused problems with sheep on his and other farms in the past.
The dog owners started a vicious social media campaign against him, the poor guy got death threats. The dog owners attitudes the farmer didn't care about the sheep because he was only going to send them to slaughter anyway but he loved his dog - well he didn't love it enough to stop it getting into that situation!

I know I can walk my girl off lead through a field of sheep (we live on a farm and usually walk through a specific field, but the farmer forgot to tell us he'd moved ewes into there and we didn't see them until we were in it) but I always put her on lead as it's not worth the risk - to her or he sheep, even a strange dog getting too close can cause them to abort, no chasing needed.

Seriously poor form. Some people think everything exists for their own personal amusement.

I would have to link to the photo of the (60?) masses of sheep that died last year I think. They all died of shock after being ‘worried’ by a dog. It’s not just dog attacks that kill sheep.. I wouldn’t have been half as polite as you... twat (her not you).

She's an utter fool, and cruel too if she thinks it's funny to see her dog panicking other animals.

What is it with people who don't grasp that a farm is a place of work and of production, not a sodding theme park or entertainment centre?

If you can do some digging, and figure out where she might have been, please do report.

Please report her Op. Bad dog owners cause the deaths of so many sheep and lambs each year. They are idiots and need to be shown what happens when their untrained dogs off leads worry the livestock in the countryside.

Since I've commented the post has gone quiet. I've screen shot it though in case she deletes it or unfriends me.

Well done you ! Send your screen shot to local police . This is a serious incident and can cause a lot of damage .
I’m sure that a lot of missing dog posts on Facebook and similar have been dogs which have been caught worrying sheep.

I wouldn't let my dog off lead anywhere near any farm animals. Her recall is good but just her being near sheep or cows could startle them. TBH I would try and avoid even walking through fields with livestock if she was on a short lead.
People who let their dogs worry sheep are idiots who shouldn't be allowed to own animals. Like the idiots who pick up poo in plastic bags and then leave it behind.
The countryside isn't a playground. Fields and livestock are the livelihood of farmers. Makes me furious.
Sorry. Rant over.

I've come back to this after a hot bath. I usually wade in to these kind of threads a lot more than this. I've even had my very own thread on here about problems with dog owners not taking responsibility for dogs loose on our land.

But I was too bloody exhausted initially tonight. We've spent three days pulling sheep out of snow drifts. Not all of them made it. Some of those that did make it against the odds are still at risk of losing their lambs that are due to lamb starting in 3 weeks time and lasting right through until May. Over the last 48 hours we've broken a tractor and a quad bike trying to get to livestock to feed them in the snow, my DP has walked for hours and hours carrying bags of feed out to fields and fell not otherwise accessible.

The dog walkers on their snow days still came to our little part of the world to let their dogs 'play' despite the snow. Despite the warnings from the police not to travel. Despite massive snow drifts making the single track road into the farm barely unpassable until we painstakingly dug all two miles of it out so we could get a feed wagon in. They parked in the gateways we had spent hours clearing to get into fields to feed livestock. No fewer than 5 separate people knocked on our door asking for a 'quick tow out' as they had got stuck. Like we were just sat around twiddling our thumbs with nothing better to do.

The snow has shown us that (as we suspected but couldn't prove) people are regularly using completely privately owned fields with no public footpath to exercise their dogs.

They will be back in lambing time and throughout summer too. Letting their dogs play in our fields. Not picking up their toxic dog mess, letting their bouncy dogs 'play' with our sheep.

It's the first week in March and we have already had one serious incident of sheep worrying in 2018. It's estimated that 15,000 sheep a year are killed by sheep worrying in the UK. There are weekly posts on our local agricultural Facebook page about local farmers appealing for information about dog attacks.

As a society we have lost all sight of the fact that the countryside is still a working environment and not just a playground. That needs to change.

OP, I've thought some more about this and North Yorkshire police are actually really hot on sheep worrying and unlike many forces will probably take any information about incidents very seriously.