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!

I think it’s a shame you commented on the
post. I think that was misjudged. Maybe think
about how the farmer must be feeling? You’ve now soured neighbourly relations and people think you’re a knob. If it were me I would message the farmer and apologise. Telling
people off on Facebook never ends well.

I get what you’re saying about the images but really what were you hoping to achieve? Maybe country life isn’t for you?

You seem completely unaware of how devastating dog attacks can be, it doesn’t take long for a large dog to absolutely devastate a flock. You sound like you’re not cut out for living in the country if the first thing you do one seeing an upset farmer post on Facebook is moan about how the photos make you feel.

I find it so patronising when vegans think if we just "saw the reality" of an abattoir we'd all stop eating meat.

For some people, that’s what happens, awareness changes their views. For others, they’re ok with it. Most aren’t ok with the practices agreed not bring adhered to, which certainly happens. Plenty of people choose not to view footage. My son is one of them, he doesn’t want to view it because he says he knows he wouldn’t eat meat again and he wants to, which of course is his choice. There’s also a lack of knowledge of how animals are killed. A huge number of people are unaware of how animals are actually slaughtered. When we do campaigning, a lot of people don’t even consider the slaughterhouse, they think they’re shot by a farmer or even injected, like putting your dog to sleep. We get new people support us all the time because they simply become aware of reality, so it may not apply to you and your SIL, it does to others.

A farmer near us put a dead ram by the footpath for a couple of days. It had been killed by a dog. With a big hand painted sign saying “A dog did this. KEEP YOUR DOGS ON LEADS”.
I did blame him one bit. Some dog owners are absolute twats. DH had to speak to a woman who was letting her collie chase sheep on the moors the other day. She told him and another woman who challenged her to fuck off. There really is no reasoning with some people and the reality of dog attacks needs to be seen. Irl or on social media.

didn’t blame him

If there were 40 lambs killed, the only thing it could possibly be is a dog attack.

I’m a farmer and I have done exactly the same and shared images on my local Facebook groups of 5 of my lambs that were killed in a dog attack last year. I did that because I wanted the images to stick in the dog owner’s mind. The dog that attacked my sheep habitually roamed the local village and the owner just thought it made them a bit quirky. The only was to get the message across, short of dumping the lambs on her driveway, was to show her just how brutal and distressing a dog attack on sheep actually is. The dog has never been allowed out since.

I’m sorry for the poor lambs. You’ve been ‘lucky’ that the dog owner has changed though. The bad owners here won’t be told, even the threat of their dog being shot hasn’t stopped them. A mix of naivety and arrogance from both born and bred country folk and newer people moving in. My dogs are too precious to me to risk and I love all animals, I’d be devastated if they hurt sheep so they don’t get to go off lead on walks. Good recall isn’t so good for many dogs if they see sheep.

There is no right or wrong as to whether OP is overly sensitive, people will be different. It’s opinion, not fact to say OP is or isn’t too sensitive. But the conversation moves on from the original question. And peoples opinions may differ if they for example knew that it wasn’t a dog attack, or that it was lampers gone wrong or the lambs were killed by something else or the lambs were killed by the farmers own dogs or many other possibilities.

I didn't say there was an absolute right or wrong - although in my opinion there is a very clear answer. But since I never claimed it to be fact, I'm not sure why you're pointing out the obvious there.

I also never claimed that the debate shouldn't move on - although as you and the OP are the only ones who claim to know the specifics of this situation, it's not a conversation - it's just you speculating by yourself. Your speculations on the rights and wrongs of what happened to the sheep don't undermine other posters' views on how sensitive and unempathetic the OP is being.

I have no idea why you think the provenance of the dogs would affect the opinions of posters about how sensitive the OP is - the two concepts are completely independent.

But since we're clearly not going to agree on this one - do please feel free to carry on by yourself.

Yep, particularly when vegans are judging from video footage, sometimes decades out of date or not from the UK (and, sometimes, appalling recent footage from the UK, to be entirely fair). I've been in abattoirs, I've seen animals slaughtered, in the UK, first hand. I don't need to be educated by someone who's watched a video on youtube 😂

My family are farmers and I’ve seen the slaughter first hand too. The ‘good’ and the bad. Just because you have seen the ‘good’ doesn’t mean it’s all like that.

The footage we use when campaigning is always from here and we use as up to date as we have, it’s never older than a few years. Footage from abroad does matter though as not everyone eats British. There’s plenty of people working undercover on farms and slaughterhouses filming daily and some real workers that have been whistleblowers either because they’ve been disgusted or for cash. Unfortunately not all workers adhere to the rules and animals do suffer more than what the rules say they should.

And you don’t have to be ‘educated’ by us. We politely ask if you have a few minutes to talk to us. If you haven’t or don’t want to, that’s ok. We’re just people that love animals and want to raise awareness of what we believe. We know not everyone will agree, that’s ok too.

*The villiage is small and mostly old people, so I just highly doubt someone is off in the fields with a dog past midnight tbh.

It doesn't make much sense, why walk a dog in the pitch dark with no lighting in the middle of a 10 acre field. The part of the field they're kept in after giving birth is quite far from the road too. So the dogs would have to be off lead and ran pretty far*

You live in the countryside and genuinely have no idea who could be out in the dark with rogue dogs nor why they were there?

@coffeecupsandfairylights has given you the answer at 9:37 this morning....

My issue is are images necessary, most know it's not ideal to let dogs lose in fields, there are posts upon posts about it, police notices, signs, yet some twats still do.

By your own admission, none of that has worked!

But this won't work either, that's the point

The only people with lose dogs round here are the farmers anyway, it's a bit of a moot point.

This I'd understand, as then the only people impacted are the ones who walk that field.

Not too fussed about 'neighbourly' relations as they're not immediate neighbours anyway, the two farming families who live up 'our' end of the villiage agree these farmers are shit and that the images were a bit ott especially since they make no effort to actively look after their sheep (and alpacas) most of the time.

Thankfully most in the villiage are lovely and I have had no issue 'fitting' in, lots of family oriented activities and it's just the odd farmer and old moaners who had an issue with the comment.

There are many against this particular farmer in the villiage for many reasons (lack of keeping their sheep in, them being the 'owners' of the many peacocks who terrorise anyone with a dark coloured car and overall aggressiveness) so there were more likes to the comment than aggy posts back. It's just a bit weird to be told to leave because I don't enjoy graphic images of animals on my timeline.

This I'd understand, as then the only people impacted are the ones who walk that field.

But children might walk in that field...

It's makes more sense than posting in the local FB group.

As at least it limits impact to those who are 'suspects'

1200 people live here, 870 in the FB group, a handful walk those fields

Op, you have been told by everyone that you're being u but nothing will persuade you, will it?

Nice drip feed about the farmer's lack of care towards his own animals when things weren't going your way too... 🙄

And if it wasn't a dog attack, wtf do you think killed those lambs??? A hedgehog? Bigfoot? Bears?🙄🙄

You show an extraordinary lack of compassion for the farmer.

The only people with lose dogs round here are the farmers anyway, it's a bit of a moot point.

See now this just makes it sound like you're suggesting it was the farmers own dogs??!

Nope, gosh people really struggle to comprehend written English on here don't they.

How was that a drip, as others have posted it makes no difference to the issue at hand.

Thankfully someone else with an understanding of this issue has agreed and FB has agreed it's not suitable or appropriate for Facebook.

Thankfully someone else with an understanding of this issue has agreed and FB has agreed it's not suitable or appropriate for Facebook.

😂If I was playing a drinking game where I drink when the OP mentions proudly how 'Facebook agrees with her' I'd be smashed.

Hat har! Just repeating the same old, same old. No one will convince you, op, you just carry on. 🙄🙄😂😂

There are so many assumptions in this post, it's hard to know where to begin. Why assume I've "only seen the good", or even that I eat meat? You can't speak for all vegans - I've seen a lot of footage from non-UK abattoirs circulated erroneously described as UK footage, footage mis-dated, or misrepresented in a variety of other ways. I'm aware a lot of people don't - or can't - make welfare decisions about the meat that they buy, but it doesn't excuse vegans lying about the provenance of footage to further their own agenda. You may not do it - I neither know, nor care - but some do, and I find it unnecessary and abhorrent as I find any false information circulated on any subject.

You might have noticed I acknowledged that not all abattoirs maintain required standards in that post, so I'm not sure why you're stating the obvious again, but do carry on 🙄

I haven’t assumed anything, no idea what you’ve seen or what you eat. I’m just talking about my experiences and the things we hear from the public about what they think does and doesn’t happen. The fact is lots of people aren’t aware of what goes on. We believe everyone should know the truth. I can speak for the organisations I work with as it’s the reason I chose them. They use facts and UK footage when in the UK, that’s why I chose to work with them. Propaganda doesn’t help, it gives people without an argument something to use in an argument. There’s plenty of dreadful things happening in the farming industry right here every single day and plenty of people willing to gain footage of it, no need for misrepresentation.

Anyway, I’ve no interest continuing the discussion, I’m sure you haven’t either. Have a good week. ☀️ 🌱