AIBU to be fed up with walkers trespassing on our land?

[Pricelessadvice]

We have a family farm that, unfortunately, has a footpath that runs through it.
The footpath turns and goes into some woods and off our property but many people ignore the turn and just carry on around our land. This is mostly dog walkers. They then let their dog crap on our fields and just leave it. We take a crop off the land- some years a hay crop, some years beans, others wheat- but people just don’t seem to care.
I am always polite when I see someone trespassing. I ask them if they know they have left the footpath and I point them back in the direction of it. 9 people out of 10 get really arsey about it. I get all the excuses in the book- “it’s just fields/I always walk here/I can do what I want/it’s just grass/other people do it”
Ive had off lead dogs chasing my liveries horses (who have permission to ride the headlands), sheep being worried, the list goes on.

There are plenty of signs telling people where the footpath is and where it isn’t, but they get ignored.

When I try to explain to people that they wouldn’t like it if I walked my dogs in their garden every day and let them poo everywhere, they just argue that it’s not the same coz “these are fields”
SIGH
The Covid year was a bloody nightmare with people wandering everywhere.
When did people get so entitled? AIBU to think that people just think they can do whatever the hell they want nowadays?

I should think that if you put aside some time over the course of a couple of weeks to stand on your land with a camera and take photos of the people and dogs who are trespassing, you could make a difference.

People don't like having their photo taken, especially when you tell them it's to report them to the police for trespassing on private land.

Could you also rig up a fake camera (with a battery operated red flashy light) on a tree pointing at the private path, and put up a sign that says "smile! you're on camera as you trespass on my land"

Just some ideas, I haven't read the whole thread as it's very long now so sorry if I'm repeating what someone else has.

This drives me mad. Bloody uneducated twats. I am forever telling people that they are trespassing over private land. We have a tiny bit of footpath right down in one far corner of our land, It's really really obvious where the path goes and is marked.
Nope they think it's fine to walk around the fields and woods and let their dogs crap everywhere.
As it's such a small area, I am putting up a 5 strand barbed wire and electrified fence along it and another animal friendly fence a metre inside it. Hope they bloody electrocute themselves and the barbed wire cuts them. Fucking entitled idiots.

Why are you amazed. Since Covid many people have a problem with anger management. Why is it down to OP to be nice if they can’t be bothered to stick to the path and then get arsey when it’s pointed out they’re trespassing ?

Well right now Darwin awards are coming up, let’s see how many get stuck on the mountains in a storm this weekend and have to be rescued. So many are heading up in trainers,
with a TikTok route to guide them.

And they are selfish 🔔- read about the story when a group had to be rescued, a hotel gave them a room for the night, & they left without paying. Mountain rescue had to step in & pay the bill.

It’s the same mindset as I can walk where I want and my dog can 💩 wherever.

Just put up a nicely made informative sign saying welcome, please keep dogs on leads, pick up poo, because you have Guatamalan corn vipers skulking on the land to progress an agricultural soil-management and improvement programme, eat rats etc...blah blah... multinational agro-reptilian research project...and so on. No one will come walking.

I live rurally. Most of the fields throught he farms are next to ones with livestock or have livestock grazing in them. There have been so many problems with ignorant walkers that the farmers have now put signs up saying the dogs will be shot if they are off leads and do not stick to the path. Its unfortunate but it has come to this as the dogs scare the livestock, crap in fields and spread disease and have attacked and killed some animals too.

Put a sign up that clearly states they are entering private land and there is livestock grazing and lethal force will be used if dogs are found on your land.

Isn't there some legal way he can be stopped? That has to be illegal surely?

There was a story this week about how mountain rescue teams (who are all volunteers) are facing hugely increased demands due to ignorant and ill-equipped idiots. Then the twats film themselves being rescued and put it up on TikTok.

I've said before on similar threads, people don't read the right sort of fiction any more. I grew up in a town, but I knew as a child not to leave gates open, not to trample crops, not to let a dog (which we didn't have) worry sheep, not to go walking in bad weather with the wrong clothes and shoes, not to walk on the beach or explore a cave if you didn't know what the tide was doing...

And they are selfish 🔔- read about the story when a group had to be rescued, a hotel gave them a room for the night, & they left without paying. Mountain rescue had to step in & pay the bill.

Urgh yes these awful people - not as bad as this story, but one of my favourite swimming holes in my favourite valley in Cumbria has had a bit of Instagram/TikTok exposure. And it's almost accessible by car on a very rough old packhorse track - lazy people only have to walk a few hundred metres, even though it's quite remote from Lake District tourist sites.

On any warmish day, it's full of people lighting fires on the turf (illegal), "wild" camping but actually littering ie tents still left up all day (illegal) instead of striking camp at sunrise, and litter just left. A beautiful quiet serene spot is now regularly overrun with drunk hooligans. It's heart-breaking.

Compulsory Famous FIve and Swallows and Amazons, @HelenaWilson

You have my sympathy, OP. We are in Scotland and some people's attitude of right to roam meaning they will go where they like and do what they want, has wracked up damage and bills for us. We had a little Welsh pony that was an evil little shit and did a lovely job protecting our small herd of Highland ponies but he passed away a couple of years ago. Since his death, the number of dog attacks on our ponies rocketed in their winter field, which is out of sight of the house. In the space of six months we had our hay crop on the same field ruined by local holiday makers allowing their dogs to shit all over it (we have a holiday cottage locally which is the bane of our existence) and a whopping 1k out of hours vet bill when a separate group holiday makers allowed their children to take rotting grass clippings from a compost bin at the holiday cottage and fed it to the herd, causing all of them to colic and one nearly died. We lost three thousand pounds in six months to damage done by other people. It's a lot of money to us.

So I lost my rag and put a fence in on the winter field that creates a safe path from gate to gate and ran electric wire along the top of it to deter people from climbing over it and the ponies from leaning on it. It has divided opinion. Some people love it as they can now walk through the field and the ponies are kept back, some people (notably a neighbour who has been told numerous times to stop feeding and handling my ponies) object as they want to wander my entire field. I don't care. My ponies are not pets for the public to handle at will. Dog attacks have also stopped and we have a new mare that loathes dogs and will chase them if they approach her. But 50 metres of stock fence cost us 2k! We tried putting signs up, they were ignored or ripped down, we tried talking to people, we were ignored or abused and we've had enough. I am not stopping people walking through that field but I will be doing everything I legally can to keep them, their dogs and their kids away from the ponies. What really made me lose it was the poisoning incident because I had met that family out in the field petting the ponies and I had asked them to not approach them or feed them (despite a sign being on the gate saying precisely that!), explained why, told them where i lived and said they could bring the children along to my front door any time and I would be more than happy to introduce them to the herd. I love seeing kids faces light up when they meet a pony, especially for the first time. I don't really see what else I could have done and STILL they nearly killed my animals.

The daft thing is, we really didn't have any problems before Covid, but since lockdown, bad behaviour from people has gone through the roof and there are a lot of dogs with behavioural problems owned by people who can't cope with them. I have two lockdown dogs myself, who were given to me when their owners couldn't cope. I don't know what the answer is but when I win the lottery, there will be huge fences going up everywhere, nine feet tall!

As it is, my ponies cannot stay out in their summer field during the day as it is on a core path and people mither them all day, so they have to be brought in during the day to eat hay on hard standing so some twat doesn't choke them to death with a ham sandwhich (yes, really!) and I don't dissolve into a nervous wreck. @whymadam 's suggestion is not a bad one - I have a friend in Wales who put up a sign saying there were adders in her field and she claims it works! After catching a bunch of teenagers taking down my electric fencing last year and trying to climb the gate of my summer field to take video of them sitting on my ponies (one of whom is an unbacked youngster), I am putting a sign up next tot he CCTV one that says, "One of these ponies is a stallion. If you want to find out what it is like to be a mare, let yourself in with him."

My sympathy OP. We farm alongside a large village and many local dog walkers seem to think of fields as just one big dog play park/ toilet.
If there is a stile into the field then the whole thing is seen as fair game, they are all over the field. If there isn't a stile then they'll make a hole in the hedge or cut the wire. If you leave grass margins for ground nesting birds alongside arable fields they take this as an invitation to trample all over them.

You put signs up to ask people to clean up after their dogs and they are ripped down.
You ask people not to trample through your crop fields that have no footpaths but do have a standing knee high crop in and you are physically threatened. You then try to take their photo and he tries to grab your phone off you. You politely ask someone to stick to the PROW and you're told they'll fucking walk were they want too.

To top it all just had some lovely breeding heifers test positive for neospora.

Idk, ‘wildcat island’ was liable to be busy even before covid.

I do have a secret weapon with abusive dog walkers and holiday makers though, and that is a very protective Highland gelding! He doesn't like it when strange men approach me and any signs of aggression are not tolerated. It was wonderful when a particularly abusive man went white in the face when he came up behind me, rumbling deep in his chest with displeasure and snorting like a dragon. I will miss him terribly when he passes. I shall have to hunt around for another psychotic welsh section a. Somewhere, an equine has the answer to your problems!

I would take photos and post on the local Facebook group every time. Nothing like catching the people in the act and attaching some public shame to it to make people change their ways 👍

@krustykittens that's shocking but sadly not surprising. I like the idea of your sign about the stallion!

I hope it works. Another big problem that we have is that people in the holiday cottage treat our ponies as free entertainment for their kids, bring them to feed them and want to take pictures of them on their backs. I caught people once putting a six month old baby on my gelding's back! Thank God he is a lovely boy! But if anything happens, I am liable! This is why I cannot leave them in the field during good weather when the place is crawling with tourists, it's ridiculous.

@krustykittens I find it impossible to understand the level of entitlement that some people have to animals and land that belong to other people. They appear to have no idea of the consequences of their actions.
Awful to hear of your experiences, you are doing everything you can, I hope you are able to keep your ponies safe.

Thank you, and you! I do think most people are just clueless, rather than malicious. As others have pointed out, people are very disconnected from the countryside and nature - the code isn't taught, people rarely get out into it as parents work such long hours and children don't have a pet so don't connect with any animal. It's why I tried to be nice to those children because meeting an animal like a Highland pony, who are so very gently and people friendly, can be magical. But everyone, everywhere, seems to complain abut growing anti social behavior since Covid. There seems to be more resentment and anger around and I don't know what the answer is to that.

There is already a way for young people to learn - it’s called the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

I’m in favour of right to roam so no sympathy from me except to agree that the people should respect the land and not leave a mess.

Which is never going to happen, so right to roam is bullshit. Would you still be in favour if people had the right to roam in your back garden ?

Landowners show their entitlement by comparing a walker walking across one of their fields 2 or 3 miles away from where they live to someone "roaming" in a person's small garden.

Yes, this - I can't believe it isn't blatantly obvious to everybody. Where do they think all the fresh food in the supermarkets comes from?

If you want the best of both worlds: beautiful landscapes that are specifically designated for the public to enjoy and walk through, you can join the National Trust for around £15 a month. There's really no need to commandeer somebody's livelihood for your leisure time.

Nope. OP said they left mess and let their dogs shit on land used for crops. I’ve seen threads on MN (rightly) going ballistic at dog walkers letting their dogs pee on their front gardens. Your bias is showing.