Was I being overly sensitive? *TW animal death

[alphapie]

So I live in a small Villiage, as a previous city dweller some of the downsides of living in the countryside have taken a while to get used to, such as cows waking us up at 5am, free roaming peacocks destroying our cars paint on the roof and general manure smells every now and again. But after 4 years we are getting there.

Last night a local farmer had 40 lambs killed, he thinks it was a dog attack, instead of just putting a normal post about it on the local FB group (like he and other farmers have before) his son instead decided to share 20 graphic photos of the dead lambs along with the post asking for information or if anyone saw anything.

Now I was pretty upset to be scrolling through FB and to then see images of lambs ripped apart, insides everywhere, pilled on top of each other and commented this on the post. Reminding him that there are teens and young people in the group and it's maybe not the best thing to put on here, to be fair I'd expect many people, adults included would feel upset seeing these images on their FB feed.

I was jumped on by the farmer, other farmers in the village, the 'we've been here for 30 years, go back to the local city if you don't like it' lot and even accused of being the attacker, despite not owning a bloody dog.

I personally also think 40 lambs in one go is unlikely to be a dog attack, but didn't comment that of course.

Was I being unreasonable or overly sensitive to find this shocking and to maybe suggest it's a bit too much to post in a FB group where local children often post looking for summer work or weekend car washing for pocket money? Am I turning into one of those 'think of the children' people!

Well, I'm not psychic - I don't know where the incident you're referring to happened. Nor do I know anything about this farmer or how he manages his flock.

I do know that, sometimes, despite every effort, stock get loose and shit happens. I also know that often townies use rural roads as their own private racetrack, then complain when they damage their car on some inconveniently placed animal 🙄

Are you vegan? If not, YABVU as you literally pay for these poor babies to be ripped apart by people and packaged up for you to buy for Sunday lunch.

I think they got their point across.

OP you have been told many times you are being unreasonable and rather oversensitive but seem to be unable to accept you might actually be.....wrong.

So either you're a troll or you're a bit thick.

This farmer, no matter what your poorly educated opinion of them (based on gossip and village chit chat) has suffered a big , unnecessary and upsetting loss.

If you can't empathise then I think the problem might be you.

YABU you should have just reported the post as graphic to Facebook and let them moderate it.

However. I think people need to get over the fact we, and animals, have insides. When they come out, it's messy. But the only sort of trigger it has is shock, and that's exactly the message the farmer was trying to get across

I understand why they might post a pic of the carnage but 20 seems excessive. And was is this attack or a previous one that they didn't notice for days? That's a bit 😳

Yabu. People, or to be specific some city dwellers have a tendency to gloss over or try and excuse people behaving like twats in the countryside. Killing animals, destroying livelihoods, killing pets, trashing private property.
It’s all dismissed as exaggeration or at best rare, and of course walking their badly trained dog through some livestock, stomp through a few crops, their brats aren’t doing any harm feeding the cute livestock and horses, so what a gate was left open it’s only another field, it’s all just a jolly jape, it’s just rich landowners being mean if anyone objects.

If that photo makes one person stop and think it’s worth it.

You say it’s a local group. So presumably those on the group are either familiar with rural life, in which case they won’t be particularly shocked and will understand. Or they are recently arrived townies, in which case it’s a very efficient way to teach them.

I would also like to politely suggest that as a townie, and if I may be so bold a townie intent on living up to every stereotype, you are perhaps not in a position to judge or comment on the farmers standards of care, given that you know fuck all about farming or rural life. Bet your previous town was overjoyed when you left.

I wouldn't have wanted to see it OP, and just hearing about you seeing it makes me feel incredibly sad. Definitely wouldn't have wanted to see the images myself.

I absolutely agree with the farmer that it's unacceptable and more needs to be done to protect livestock but I have no wish to see the aftermath of an attack myself.

For context, I'm also a person who has to scroll past images of animal cruelty or dead cats being found at the side of the road. Doesn't make me heartless and I'm not pretending it's not happened, it just makes me too sad when I see the images and I can't get them out of my head. Sorry to disagree with most of you but I can understand where the OP is coming from.

I agree with OP. Scrolling through Facebook when you're not expecting a graphic image can be disturbing, regardless of what it is tbh. I think there should have probably been a graphic image warning and images posted in comments where people could only see if they chose to. I wouldn't want to see graphic images of dead things on my feed, whether that be sheep, humans, cats, whatever.

Just because OP lives in the countryside it doesn't mean they have to be okay with dead animals thrust in their face whilst they're drinking their morning coffee.

YABU.

Dog attacks on sheep are horrendous and if enough sheep are killed, it can ruin a farmers' livelihood.

A man local to me has just been up in court as his huskies escaped and ran for miles, killing sheep at several local farms.

Not long before that, two dogs were shot for worrying sheep - I can't remember how many died but it was at least double figures.

The whole thing is dodgy AF. There’s lots of rumours about what happened. Posts have been deleted and there’s a history of weird shit that doesn’t add up. People are commenting when they don’t know how ‘off’ this all is.

@gezelligheid But presumably it’s ok for people to see it when they’re strolling through a field? As long as any townies aren’t upset then out of sight, out of mind.

If anyone thinks the image is upsetting, you should be in favour of trying to prevent it happening. And as everyone with any experience knows, putting up signs, asking nicely and hoping for the best doesn’t work. Shock tactics do.

People are commenting when they don’t know how ‘off’ this all is

Well yes most of MN doesn't live there!
We do know there's a big issue with sheep worrying generally though.

People are commenting when they don’t know how ‘off’ this all is.

Any perceived controversy is irrelevant - people are commenting on the principle of farmers sharing photographs of the carnage that results from dog attacks, on social media to shock idiot dog owners into taking more care.

The farmer may be the dodgiest, worst farmer in history - he still isn't unreasonable to share photos of his dead sheep after a dog attack.

Local children don't need your concern, OP. They will be accustomed to the realities of country living. It might not be sheep, but many rural roads have a goodly supply of dead things, usually courtesy of car drivers. Your post is a perfect illustration as to why incomers into small and tight communities are often resented

You clearly have no appreciation of rural life. You seem more offended by the images on SM than the act of animals being mutilated and killed by domesticated pets. If the attack was at night, these will be dogs let out for their late night wee or free ranging pets not secure. You and the dogs are an equal menace to livestock farmers.

Of course he is! Wouldn't you be upset if you'd just lost hundreds of pounds?

Shock tactics do.

Like some farmers threatening to shoot dogs that are not even off lead and never go off lead. I’ve had that happen a few times by a certain farmer. If your face doesn’t fit, some farmers are extremely unpleasant, angry individuals. And they post things like this on Facebook to suit their agenda. I really wouldn’t believe everything is as they want you to think it is.

I actually wish that people would see animals being killed and butchered so that they could see the meat that they eat are a living being that they are getting tortured and killed. Unless you're a vegan, suck it up cupcake!

some farmers are extremely unpleasant, angry individuals

You mean, just like the rest of the population then?

If it’s a someone else’s dog that has actually done it. But the details do matter I’m afraid. It makes no sense.

The images aren’t nice but I’ve seen worse things In real life. I’m more concerned about individual agendas and people should engage their brain.

It does sound a bit like you've recently blown in and decided to start getting sniffy with the locals and telling them what they can and should be doing. Sometimes it's better just to not say anything.

It makes absolutely no difference to the discussion on here. You can keep saying it doesn't make sense, but your speculation is completely irrelevant to the question in the OP.

Yeah money he needs to keep his farm running so that he can feed his animals and his family and not lose his home and livelihood. What an idiot

No, I don't think it's okay to be seeing it anywhere and I didn't imply in any way that it was.