Please use the countryside responsibly- so fed up

[jacks11]

On a rare day off from my day job, I have once again spent the day dealing with a series of thoughtless and/or completely entitled idiots behaving totally irresponsibly on our land. I had thought the one (very small) silver lining of this awful situation would be that this lambing season would see us free from so many problems from people out for a walk etc. But still having issues.

Today I stopped no fewer than 7 families traipsing through either the yard, our garden (one family stopping to have a seat on the picnic table/bench in our garden) or the lambing sheds to have a look. One family also stopped off to admire the lambs in one of the fields then preceded to take there youngish children (under 10) into said fields to see them closer. Several gates left open, people climbing over gates etc. I caught someone feeding our old pony apples and a doughnut! We’ve had rubbish being dropped. Dogs off leads etc.

What I cannot understand is how so many are getting to us- they must be breaching the guidance to only exercise locally or walking at least 7 miles from the nearest village. Which I doubt with the ages of some of the children.

When DH politely approached the family in our garden they were really rude, citing their “right to roam”- not even slightly apologetic when pointed out they were in our garden so they had no right to be there. Ditto several other people- don’t seem to realise right to roam does not apply to private gardens or land used for commercial reasons- I.e. yards/lambing sheds and you must behave responsibly (e.g. close gates, don’t let dogs off leads near livestock, don’t leave rubbish, don’t worry livestock, don’t walk across crops etc).

When you add in the situation with Covid, you’d think people would be careful about touching gates etc unnecessarily- but no. Lots of people have vulnerable family members and this is just an added headache- having to constantly be aware that people may have touched the gates/railings/doors etc.

Please use the countryside responsibly- some of us live on the land you are using as a playground. You are putting our livestock at risk- please don’t feed livestock/horses for that reason- and sometimes yourself in danger. There is no excuse for leaving rubbish.

Rant over!!

Hester, this year for BIL the % killed by dogs is about 95%!
However, last year was 0%, so this year is extreme, but as I said before, dog attacks are rarer than they were when I was in the business.

derxa No, I thought there was away to make some money out of a bad situation, supplement your income, There is a couple of farms in the area that have an old barn turned in to a guest house, They include a tour of a working farm and observe milking ( if their up early enough.

and observe milking ( if their up early enough. I can't imagine anything more boring!

The archers 'open farm Sunday's' always seem to involve a lot of Health and safety considerations.
I'd guess it would be significant amount of work and the people who are misbehaving now wouldn't be happy at having to pay.

The archers 'open farm Sunday's' always seem to involve a lot of Health and safety considerations. That's right but the Archers involve people unlike any farmers I've ever seen or heard of. I detest that programme. They're always doing things like 'rewilding'. A complete pile of shite.

So let me get this straight, there is now a suggestion (whilst we are in a pandemic and morons are not abiding by the countryside code and causing damage/harm to animals, and exposing the farmers who we are now totally reliant on food produce)....that to stop the morons people should open up their farms workplaces for guided tours and tea.

Now that is so bonkers I think someone is completely taking the piss now. Let alone the fact this would be breach of the lockdown rules; the change of use, insurance, planning permissions for change of use required...objections (oh people do object in droves when you try to add facilities to a farm)..

Just completely and utterly nuts. Just abide by the Countryside code, keep your dogs on leads, don't go near the animals, don't stroll onto people's property for a picnic, don't drop litter, feed animals shite causing them harm and distress.

Use the public rights of way for the access route they are, and stay out of private property. It's not that hard.

The Archers is unintentionally funny. I remember a while ago someone saying that so-and-so was 'helping with the potato harvest' - or as we would say, 'lifting spuds'. Last year, someone was 'busy combining'. It was the middle of bloody September, the farms here were ploughing in.

If I never end up on the arse end of a potato digger again, it will be too soon. . .

I listen to it in chunks when I'm doing the ironing ... because of the sunny weather I have an enormous backlog of both.
I'm sure it is very inaccurate (I know what listening to dramas about scientific subjects is like ...' no one would ever say that, you fools' ) but, at least no one who listens to it regularly should have any doubt about keeping their dogs on leads and what can happen if you don't.

@Hester54 How many selfish fucking townie cunts do you will be willing to pay thousands for their nasty brats to feed the horses? And even if you can find some, which won't happen because the freeloading fuckers think other people's horses are a free attraction, no amount of profit, let alone the mere cost in vet fees makes it a price I consider remotely worth it. I'm also not looking for euthanasia and disposal costs to be covered for horses that would be just fine without scum interfering with them.

Vets are on emergency only. I'm currently debating whether I increase the medication for one, knowing it will reduce the time they have left, or whether I put the symptoms down to the worthless piece of shit that thinks it's acceptable to feed someone else's pets.

Vets are on emergency only. I'm currently debating whether I increase the medication for one, knowing it will reduce the time they have left, or whether I put the symptoms down to the worthless piece of shit that thinks it's acceptable to feed someone else's pets.

Sorry to hear that trainspotting. It would interest me how many people who think it's appropriate to feed other people's animals all manner the crap have heard of colic, or laminitis, or Cushing's disease and exactly what they mean for a horse. And an owner. I've had signs ignored, resorted to having to keep a pony in all summer, on their own, away from their field mates because someone decided to keep taking the grazing muzzle off. The grazing muzzle prescribed by the vet to prevent eating too much grass and therefore sugar and getting laminitis. The removal caused a relapse and the decision that the pony had to stay in to be safe. That's not fucking acceptable, and it's the people causing the problems by pulling shit like this, not the farmers and livestock owners trying to protect their animals and land that are the issue. People like Hester are jealous and really hot on rights, but want none of the responsibility that goes with it. Yet expect that the people being damaged to accept it, yet still respect their rights.
No, just no way. It's not on and I'm sick of hearing how it's ok to trash someone's livelihood or hurt their animals so someone else can walk through a fucking field. It's not comparable.

I wish we had a 'like' or better still an 'I agree' button here!
We have a field (just the one thank Gawd) bordering on a housing estate where people think the ponies will just lurve their oily herbicide contaminated grass cuttings. Have they never heard of compost heaps these 'gardeners' with their lovely weed free lawns?

old I imagine some do know, but don't care, and others don't know or care. Like you, I've had muzzles, and signs ignored or removed. But they don't consider it worth worrying about, after all horses only exist for random twats to feed and generally interfere with. They aren't sentient beings or beloved pets or anything

Would just like a answer, no sarcasm or vile comments, went for a walk today a route I haven’t been on for a while, you have to go through a few fields, then a small field ( public footpath) to get to the woods, in the small field was sheep, Yes put the dogs on leads, There was an electric fence all away around the field, the farmer had made no provision for the fence to be made safe for walkers at both entrance and exit, I had to try and stop the dogs and myself from getting a shock,
What would you rather I do
Just unclip the fence and leave it disconnected
Cut the wire both at entrance and exit
Have a word with the farmer to do something about it
Report to the council on their reporting app,
No I couldn’t go around or turn back,
Just one more, a entrance gate, beside to big gates has been padlocked and barbed wire wrapped all the long the gates, this is on a bridle way, didn’t concern me to much as not going that way, what should I do in that situation,
I know you will side with the farmer, even not knowing the full story as to why they have done this.

We have a footpath 3 metres from our house, so I feel everyone's pain, but...

..some of the attitudes to town-dwellers on this thread are pretty vile. The percentage of people who are selfish twats is just the same in the countryside as the town, IME. Lots of walkers do behave responsibly, wherever they are from, and twats are just as likely to be locals as townies - if anything, IME, the locals are more entitled.

if anything, IME, the locals are more entitled.
That's not been my experience. Maybe it's different up here because we often see the Coastguard helicopter buzzing around and Mountain Rescue Land Rovers driving around so are well aware of the consequences of getting it wrong. It's overwhelmingly city-dwellers who don't stick to the paths and who let their dogs off leads.

The very fact that poster after poster has complained about this year being particularly bad proves that it is not mainly townies who are the problem. Ok, a few people will be breaking the lockdown rules on travel, but the vast majority of people doing country walks at the moment are people themselves who live in the country.

There is a lazy assumption that anyone who does something twattish is a townie, when that self-evidently isn't true at the moment. Even in normal years, you have no idea where most twats are from - you just assume they are townies. You're stuck in a false logic loop: "Only townies behave like twats so anyone who behaves like a twat is a townie". It's bollocks.

IME a fair proportion of people who live in the countryside have nothing to do with it, and do not understand it. They pop up on MN advertising that they 'live rurally' and then make a comment that reveals that they haven't got a bloody clue. Same on our local FB. 'What is this shrub? Will it flower?' It's a bloody sycamore sapling, sweetie.

So I can well believe that a fair proportion of the clueless trotting round the countryside at the moment actually live there.

@MrsNoah2020 actually we do know where people are from. The Scouse accents are a bit of a giveaway as to how far they've travelled. Mountain rescue teams also post details of their rescues and many of them are people from Birmingham or the Wirral.

In other news, Isle of Man Transport put signs up on gates yesterday to ask people not to touch the horses. This morning the signs had been ripped down and thrown into the field. Two of the horses are heavily pregnant mares so it's really not a good idea to have dogs running around. They've also had problems lately with parked cars blocking gateways. Do you really think that locals would bother driving somewhere to go for a walk when they only live around the corner?

Do you really think that locals would bother driving somewhere to go for a walk when they only live around the corner?

Yes. Loads of people where I live (one of the most rural areas of England) do. Most people get bored of only walking from their own village.

Carry on with your townie-hating if you want, but it's pathetic and stupid. Most people who live in towns could teach country-dwellers a thing or two about sharing outdoor spaces. Go into Hyde Park or Victoria Park in Liverpool on a sunny Saturday and you will see thousands of people sharing a few acres with very few problems. Yes there are some twats but - newsflash - there are twats everywhere.

There are plenty of twats in the countryside. I have never met a rider who hasn't had terrifying experiences with farm vehicles - are townies driving those? I have rarely met a farmer who hasn't had problems with inconsiderate riders, particularly when hunting was more common. Was that townies? Who do you think is ripping up signs in the Isle of Man during lockdown? Are phantom Scousers sneaking in in the middle of the night, or could it perhaps be locals?

The thing I find most pathetic about the townie-bashing on here is that you are never going to solve the problem if you convince yourself that it's only townies that need educating. And your attitudes just alienate the majority of the population (townies), instead of trying to win them over. Meanwhile, you are ignoring the problem on your own doorstep - twattish locals - because it's just not as fun getting all indignant about them.

Does it really matter if it's Tim the townie or Vera from up the village who's being an idiot?
You don't get a discount on the vet bill because it was a local that fed your horse crap. Crops don't not die because it was a townie that trampled all over them.
The result is the same whoever is responsible.
There's people walking around here that I see get in and out of a car and go in and out of their house and that's about it, they are now walking in and around the village daily because they are off work/can't get their usual exercise/gyms shut/whatever. I'm also seeing people and hearing accents that definitely aren't local.

If you walk in the countryside and use it you have a duty to treat it with respect, no matter who you are.

The fact remains though that those who have been brought up in a rural area are more likely to know how to behave in the countryside than someone who hasn't been. Because they see first hand the concequences of people not being responsible, and some are on the recieving end of it. It becomes second nature.

I've never understood UK laws allowing public footpaths on peoples farms. That's your land. Why are their public footpaths on them? I've just never understood this. I'm sorry you're going through this.

In other news, one of our local farmers put cameras up and also wrote a sign up mentioning said camera, and his rules .. and he put a sign up of a £1000 fine if anyone trespasses (not quite sure how true this is but it works).

Hope you can sort something out.

Thats easy sunshineee, most of the footpaths were made hundreds of years ago by people walking to their place of work, quote often a farm or big house. Others were made by people walking from town to town to get to market, or again to work etc.
These became public Rights of Way, some even became roads, but basically they are just ways to get from A to B. There's nothing wrong with us using them for recreation and enjoyment. Footpaths do not give people the right to frolic across the land they cross or to take the stones from tops of walls because they'd look 'nice' in their gardens. Taking flowers or birds eggs is also frowned on, as is allowing dogs to harass farm animals.
People can walk along these paths, and welcome, just as long as they don't abuse them.
.

Hester54 - regarding "Just unclip the fence and leave it disconnected" - why can't you reclip it once you have gone through??

Or maybe not go there during lcokdown when you know farmers are having a nightmare time.

Throckmorton Because it would mean having to go back across the live fence with my dogs tied up the other end, or maybe the farmer just doing what their meant to do, I was already that way, Why are the farmers having any more of a nightmare than non farming people?