AIBU to think that if you hate animals you shouldn't move to the countryside?

[shiklah]

I live in a very rural community which has become popular with commuters in the last 5 years. Over the last 18 months the following complaints have featured heavily on the local WhatsApp and Facebook groups:

Cows blocking the road for 10 mins (they do this twice a day and have for hundred of years as they go in for milking)
Escapee sheep roaming the verges and traffic islands
Cockerels crowing
Church Bells

Our neighbours moved in Jan 2016 and have built a conservatory overlooking our field. They have complained:

A ram was tupping ewes in the field
Many Sheep gave birth in the field
A sheep had a prolapsed and was attended by the vet in the field (the vet delivered 2 healthy lambs, revived them and saved the ewe, it was awesome and brilliant and they are all healthy and happy but apparently it spoiled mothers day breakfast)
A fox killed a rabbit and ate it in our field
A ferral cat lives in the hedge at the side of our field
A sheep pooed when Mr Neighbour was eating breakfast

Th least one was reported to me at 7pm this eve when I was getting out of my car at the end of a 60 hour working week. He DROVE to my house to tell me a sheep pooed in his view whilst he was eating breakfast in his conservatory that he built, overlooking my field, that has been their since before my house was built, in 1762. I literally don't know know what to say to these idiots any more. AIBU to simply laugh in their faces and move on with my day

I have had wine and am feeling frazzled

I’m currently being kept awake by a shouting fox, can you deal with that too while you train your sheep to only poo when no ones looking??

This is superb.

I had a friend in a similar situation. Farm had been there for decades and some very wealthy people moved in next door and complained about EVERYTHING.
This went on for ages until my friend had had enough of trying to be a nice neighbour. So there was the tractor and trailer full of manure that "accidentally" broke down outside their front drive the same night as their very lavish garden party for their many, equally awful friends ;) and many other similar events that just started to happen... including the emus that suddenly got loose and stampeded through the garden....

We have some of these here too. They actually started a petition to stop farmers spreading slurry, then another to stop farmers lambing outside (one farmer had a particularly bad year, with many dead lambs) and then there was two petitions about tractors. One was no tractors on the road, and the other was okay, tractors on the road but they can't pull trailers. I've no idea where they intended to hand these petitions to, but I was told that the reactions in the local when they wandered in looking for signatures was something to behold.

A local farmer was buried today. He was someone who was always on the periphery of my life, and I sort of always expected him to be, iykwim. I went on Facebook and found a whole pile of these people complaining about the 'traffic jam'. Somebody explained why, and one now deleted response was 'but then why were so many people there if he was only a farmer!' Mind boggling!

As for what you should do:
Castrate at least a few ram lambs. In the field. At breakfast time.
Any sore feet or other health care also needs to be done in the field at breakfast time.
Buy a goat. But basically the Houdini of the goat world. Encourage goat to eat ndn flowers, plants, etc.
Lots of geese, and a donkey.
Spread much slurry.
When sheep out of field, errect a sign saying warning field has been sprayed and may contain toxic chemicals.

And look for a sign like the one I have. We have middle of the night trespassers, due to an ongoing issue with DPS ex in laws. It says (in more legal terms) that I am not responsible for any injuries or damage you suffer if you come onto my land without my permission and act like a twat. It says something like need my express consent every time and that trespassers would be prosecuted. I don't know if it actually covers me legally, but I figure they wouldn't know, and that it would be enough to put them off. I also started talking about my imaginary large breed guard dogs that I can only let out at night and have to padlock away during the day. I really should name the imaginary beasts.

Would like to say unbelievable but sadly these people do exist. My solution would be to fence off the part of your field closest to his end, get some nice corrugated pig arks then put some porkers on there to turn their nice green view into a mud pit.

This is my favourite thread in ages! I moved to the country about 5 years ago and love it here (I'm not one of them, I promise!)

The village who farm need to respond andridicule these comments every single time, make them stop. Otherwise it will be like the very lovely equestrian centre near me that was driven out of business by 2 people waging a campaign.

The centre tried to accommodate every request politely but the complainers just moved onto the next point and after a few years the centre had enough.

Another sad one... in my rural village growing up we had a little old lady who had Bees and made honey. She lived in the house that she had grown up in and had had this little beehive with no issue for over 60 years. She was known across the village as the honey lady - she gave the honey away and it was indeed delicious.
Anyway, one day a new family (from London) moved in next door and immediately started a campaign against her.
Nasty notes through the door, threats of legal action if any of them happened to get stung.
Honey lady was terrified and heartbroken. She sold the hive and got rid of the bees. Two months later she passed away, heartbroken and deeply depressed.
I was young at the time and bitterly wish I had done more to help her and I hope that family know they hounded a woman to her death on their conscience.

I do keep bees 🐝 they are so lovely! Except when they decided to move out of the hive and into the loft....that wasn’t great.

Ahhh I have found my people. Almost lost the plot when I saw him beetling down my lane in his bloody mini last night. I’m working again today but Dh is threatening to move a huge compost bin in front of their window and when they complain look shocked and say “it’s so you can’t see the sheep shagging and shitting” 😂

One yard we were at, the neighbours grew a hedge right next to one of our grazing fields, and then were surprised and cross when our livestock leaned over the fence and ate the hedging - they demanded that we fence our animals away from (our) fence.

I'm speechless!

I'm a townie (grew up in Croydon ffs, how much townier can you get?) but I did get a reasonable notion of what producing meat involved. How can people be so ignorant?

Anyway OP, I think Mr N should swap houses with me. I'd love to live next door to your sheep and cockerels, and if you got pigs and donkeys as well, I'd love it even more. We have sheep close by, but the only ones we can see are 3 miles away and that's too far to tell when they're having a dump.

I think this chap had the right idea.

Oh god they did make a HUGE fuss when the lambs went to the abattoir. I actually thought they were vegetarians and did have sympathy but they were tucking into meat at the village BBQ and donated cheap sausages so its not an animal welfare issue.

I'm off to work in 5 mins. I found a dead squirrel yesterday so I might lob that into their garden for the feral cat to discover! (It looks like a well cared for tom cat that is summering in the hedge tbh!)

UrbaneSprawl I was about to look for that sign to post.
We are in a semi rural village and newcomers have complained about the church clock which chimes on the hour.

My solution would be to fence off the part of your field closest to his end, get some nice corrugated pig arks then put some porkers on there to turn their nice green view into a mud pit.

Yes to this! And get a boar in to service the sows, in full view of his conservatory, while he's tucking in to his bacon and eggs.

I NEED THAT SIGN!!!

Having spent far too long living in cities I’m amazed that anyone could be offended by a field of sheep.

Perhaps you could train your sheep in some kind of synchronised grazing to spell out rude words? Or there’s always the ‘paint the bright colours’ option (I’m not sure where you are but there are several flocks in Scotland that get the tartan treatment or get dyed bright colours and it’s quite a draw.)

Definitely get some alpaca.

@shiklah tell them that you've solved the problem and sold the land to a housing developer. For flats.

Ah yes, we have a few of those...
Complaining about church bells (it was Christmas...)
Complaining about the smell of fertiliser
Complaining about a cockerel

Sons of it is down to being on the commuter belt but unfortunately, some of the thicker locals like to join in

Definitely time to get some geese and a peacock OP!

We've had similar. There was a letter in the parish mag from someone complaining about horse manure in the village. I can only assume the editor put it in so we could all have a laugh.

People don't realise that the countryside is actually an industrial area, for the farming industry. They seem to think it's empty space for their use, but at the same time that someone is responsible if they get hurt using it.

One of the big complaints from people moving to our area, mostly from Essex or London, is that there are no amenities nearby, like GP surgeries, shops and pubs. That's the reality of rural life, be prepared to drive a lot. And if you can't, move to a town. And yes, people really do go to bed that early.

This is what you need to do!

you can provide Mumsnet gold with these neighbours.

We had the same. Neighbours moved in from the town.

Complained the cows were mooing at night.

Complained the owls were hooting at night.

Complained there were bats flying over their garden and they might carry disease.

Complained in the autumn that all the mice were coming in from the fields.

Complained to the council and everyone you can imagine about the farmer putting manure on the fields! Yes, it does smell, but if you buy a house in the country next to fields, what do you expect?

Utter idiots.

Fasten large laminated speech bubbles to the heads of your sheep, saying, “Don’t look at me- I’m shy!”.

Hardly dare admit this on here, but I once phoned the police because I passed a field with two dead/ill looking horses in.

They were sunbathing .

I live rurally too; just know feck all about the leisure activities of horses.

Shockers

I think it's because they are twats. I think a goat is the way forward.