Who does an Easter Egg Hunt in a public place?

[gracielooloo]

I was out with the dog early this morning (6.30). We live in a village and two minutes up the road there are fields.

Walking down the track (it just leads to a field, no houses) realised there were pastel coloured eggs hanging from branches and plastic eggs on the ground, had a look and fortunately they were all empty. That was all good except for the polystyrene bunnies of which one took a battering and lost an ear from ddog tossing it about a bit, replaced them and went on our way.

Got to the end of the track and there’s some trees, here displayed in front of me is a Happy Easter banner, think Christ what now. Ddog belts over (he’s a lab so will eat ANYTHING!) and I follow. Being careful I don’t get a branch in the eye I look down at my feet and here’s a full blown Easter Egg Hunt, choc eggs strewn everywhere and one huge egg. Fortunately I grabbed Ddog, sure he only got two wee eggs and stuck his lead on.

The whole thing has amused or maybe bemused me, whoever did it was either up very early or did it last night but would you not be worried about the wildlife getting in amongst it!😏🦊🦉

@Stompythedinosaur OP described a field and specifically not grassland/moorland/forest so I was imagining a privately owned field.

YABU. Your dog should be on a lead.

It was a field not a park, had it been a park the dog would have been on a lead.

A local farmer owns the field, it’s not near an any farm buildings, no livestock in adjacent fields. I see the farmer quite regularly and he always waves so don’t think he has a problem with us walking through. Obviously if it changed and had there were animals, things planted we wouldn’t just trek through it.

At the moment ALL dogs are required to be on leads

No they're not.
People should use common sense. Obviously a dog without reliable recall should be on a lead.

Dogs should definitely be on leads and you should stick to the foot path when walking across farmer’s land.

It really isn’t a public place - didn’t it occur to you that the Easter egg hunt might have been set up by the land owner, or with their permission?

There is no requirement that all dogs must be on leads.

Some farmers are fine with dog walkers walking their dogs off leads in fields (e.g. a farmer in my parent's village - he has even installed a dog waste bin on the gate, together with a roll of bags in case anyone forgets or needs more).

The fact that OP was walking her dog off lead in a field is neither a problem nor the point of this thread, so I'm not sure why the thread has veered in that direction.

OP, I agree it's totally bizarre (and frankly stupid) to leave chocolate out overnight where animals can get at it.

You don't know that it was out overnight, the owner of the land may have been up early to set up an Easter egg hunt.

True, we don't know it was out overnight, however I would still be wary about eating chocolate that's been in the reach of vermin, birds, badgers, foxes etc even if it's only been out for half an hour.

We usually do a hunt in the park with friends we did a hunt in the garden in pants instead

@Lockheart - foil wrapped? I wouldn't worry about it personally!

The fact that the OP was walking on privately owned land with her dog off lead kind of is the point though, as her dog destroyed some of the Easter egg hunt.

Hmm knowing the farmer, who lives not far away I would have thought (although accept I could be wrong) that they have a huge garden so it would seem odd to put it in one of their random fields. Also their children are grown up so wouldn’t think it would be them, grandchildren shouldn’t be visiting at this time.
Could have been someone with permission yes, yet another scenario this dreadful dog walker didn’t consider!

Thankyou for all your replies especially those with greedy dogs, i feel your pain, I am obviously a terrible dog owner for allowing him off lead, not considering birds and trespassing to boot.

I thought I was quite a sensible, considerate dog owner too!😂

If you know the farmer, ask him for permission to use his land and tell him to let you know if he or someone else will be using it.

Is there a right of way across the field or is it completely private land?

Fucking stupid of anyone to do an Easter egg hunt anywhere other than their own garden or home right now. But also a bit at having the dog off lead when clearly this field is used by others. Who knows who else the friendly farmer has permitted?

We usually do a hunt in the park with friends we did a hunt in the garden in pants instead

This definitely requires further explanation. Are you hunting while wearing pants (only pants?) or hunting in pants (and if so, how many pairs of pants are in the garden)?

Alemonypea, someone also said on my local fb that they had left Easter eggs about the place for children to find .

The first comment underneath her post said ‘Lovely, little bags of plague’.

We are farmers, so to help clarify a few points, dogs should be on leads if-

• there is livestock in the field
• the field is drilled with crops
• the grass is being grown for silage/haylage
• the land is being managed for wildlife

We have quite a few people who can't differentiate between pasture and winter wheat so tend to put up signs identifying as such. Similarly with wild bird seed mix, quite a few people think "meadow" and so we put signs up here too. Rough pasture provides cover for ground nesting birds and therefore I would suggest in early spring everyone keeps their dogs on leads in fields. I have two retrievers and I appreciate that on lead walks are not ideal, but if you don't have perfect recall, it's really not good for wildlife to have them roaming loose at this time of year particularly.

Needless to say, if it doesn't have a PROW sign, it is private regardless. I apprehended two walkers in one of our fields this afternoon and the response I received was "there was no sign saying private." By the same token, there probably isn't a sign on your garden gate saying private but if I started running through your flower beds I can only imagine where you would tell me to go.

Thanks @frillyfarmer, there were no livestock or crops. The way I walk is on a sort of path between two fields so not walking through the middle of crops or anything like that, the dog generally sticks to the path too. Other than sniffing out random Easter goodies....

I will keep him on lead from now on due to the time of year and wildlife, I have googled and can’t find anything definitive that says dogs should be kept on leads due to CV. If anyone can link to that I’d appreciate it.

Also if the farmer asked us not to walk there or there were signs up we would respect them.

I think it's recommended that dogs are kept on leads/under control because people who scan found dogs (and cats) and dog wardens are unable to move as freely as before. Since lockdown I haven't seen any Facebook posts of lost and found dogs (unless I've unfollowed them).

I've looked and the only references I can find to dogs being on leads is where they are in a self-isolating household or in the big London parks.

Every church,family oranization etc in America. We even have one at the White House every year. Of course this during normal times

I hope an easter Labrador comes to lay an egg all over you miserable types' lawns

lol at all the people desperately trying to pull a hole in this, including by just making shit up.

People with children and no garden

That’s all I could find too @Stompythedinosaur, thanks.

To all those saying churches, people without gardens, even the Whitehouse, yes I agree these are people who would hold them in normal times but you would expect people to be there surely!!
You know guarding the eggs from the irresponsible dog owners.😉