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!!

Yes it was the country code back then.

Aaahhh - yes, that's it, that's exactly what it was.

That video they showed of a welly boot on an escalator marked me for life - the moment my kids go near an escalator I'm reminding them to stay away from the edges.

Thighmageddon That’s the point I was getting at there is many different rules regarding under control,
Let’s look at the dog walker on a FP with their dog off lead within sight, maybe a couple of meters ahead, approaches the next field, high hedge, walk that route yesterday , no livestock in field, opens style for the dog and there is sheep in the field, they run, dogs as they do naturally runs,
You have the dog back to you in minutes,
Now is this the fault of the walker or the inconsiderate farmer for not helping the situation and putting up warning signs,

Kay1341 I refer you to my previous answer

"and there is sheep in the field, they run, dogs as they do naturally runs,
You have the dog back to you in minutes"

My dog wouldn't run, but if you have a dog that does it should be on the lead everytime you go into a field that you can't see beforehand.

I live in a rural village and I've heard a few stories on the grapevine of tourists walking/camping in large groups and not distancing. One lady farmer was allegedly physically attacked for remonstrating.

That'd be the fault of the dog walker. If you know your dog is likely to go far enough then keep it on a lead. It's not rocket science.

I think you're taking the piss now with this opens style , you don't open a style...

And it would be the dog walkers fault as well. If a dog does not have 100% recall then it shouldn't be offlead anyway, especially in the countryside where it's a commonly known fact that there might be livestock in fields. Anyone that thinks differently is severely lacking in brain cells.

Also Hester, if youve lived.in the same area for years you usually get to know where the sheep go.

Kay1341 my attitude only comes from meetings with landowners/renters, who think the countryside rules doesn’t apply to them, I would never let my dogs deliberately chase livestock, but don’t expected to be treated as if I have,

Thighmageddon Sorry I meant gate, thanks for picking me up on that, The same brain cells that stop a person putting up a polite warning up,

Tonyaster You would know that the sheep are moved on a regular basis, Different fields are used differently

For someone who lives in the country @Hester54 you have very little respect for the livelihood of many of your neighbours

hester you must be unlucky. I've lived here for 35 years, very rural farming area and I've never had any arguments with landowners or farmers!

If I was a farmer, the last thing I'd want to do around my livestock fields once I'd moved them, is then go and update all the signage so that people know I've moved the sheep.

How about people take a bit of responsibility for themselves and their animals and put the dog back on the lead before taking it somewhere there might be livestock?

Purple, I used to work in agricultural audit, so I know a bit about subsidies. I was simplifying, I'm on my phone. They're there for a number of reasons, one of which is to support farm incomes in marginal areas. Or that used to be the case, anyway.

Whichever, tax payers provide the money. There's going to be a new agriculture bill post-Brexit. Most taxpayers live in urban areas and most of them haven't got a clue about the countryside. They need to be educated - about their dogs and sheep, about the fact that farm buildings aren't theme parks, and about food production. While I completely get why farmers on this thread are utterly pissed off by dogs chasing sheep, kids climbing on tractors etc, the antagonistic git orf mah land tone of some (not all) of the landowning posters isn't conducive to either education or persuasion. And those despised townies vote. They write to their MPs. They already don't understand the basics of pest control (witness all those vegan threads). Why are they going to be in favour of voting for a party which wants subsidies for farmers, if their experience of farmers is people on MN promising to spray slurry and padlock gates across rights of way? Some of them are going to be NHS and supermarket staff at a much higher risk of exposure to Covid than the vast majority of farmers.

Again, I'm far from anti-farmer. I'd be pissed off at Joe Public strolling round my barns letting his kids play on my tractor while his dog barks at the fence and scares the ewes. But spraying slurry? Telling every walker to get off every footpath?

Clymene I have respect for their livelihoods, not some of their attitudes towards walkers, FP have been there for a very long time

Tonyaster Perhaps you have proper farmers, not Londoners that buy a farmhouse with land and FP and the can’t understand why people are walking around the fields

Even dogs that you know are sheep safe (a) the sheep don't know that and (b) even the steadiest ones can have a lapse. A sheep-owning neighbour has just lost her tiny terrier who suddenly got it into his head to chase a sheep for the first time ever (never paid them a blind bit of notice before) - dog and ewe both went off the cliff edge, dog died from the impact of the fall, ewe broke all her legs and had to be shot.

TreestumpsAndTrampolines Why not? you move the electric fences a few signs wouldn't take no time, what about taking some responsibility?

That is why the field gates around here are firmly padlocked often with a large tree trunk the field side.

I cannot believe people are such scum. There is no right to roam, you have to stay on footpaths, with dogs on leads around livestock.

Fuck me hester but how can someone possibly call themself a responsible dog owner in those circumstances? Your absolute duty as a dog owner is to prevent your dog from chasing livestock and that means that if you can't see categorically that a field is empty before you take your dog in, then you must put them on a lead. And getting your dog back "in minutes" is not close control. Don't know about rules in England, but in Scotland it most certainly is not a right to roam, it is a right of responsible access that can be suspended in certain circumstances and that excludes gardens, farmyard, curtilage etc

No one should be walking around the fields. You can walk through on the public access path.

Hester54, for God's sake check before letting your dog go into a field... Basic countryside manners.

Oh and accidentally allowing your dog to chase livestock is just as damaging - and just as illegal - as deliberately allowing them to chase livestock

And yet you'd let your dog off lead during lambing time? Because, despite you having lived in the country for 55 years, you don't know when it is?

You have got to be on a wind up. No one is this dim.