My dog has just done the worst thing

[93sdb]

Hes just chased a sheep into a pond in the snow. Im heartbroken.

When he was younger he chased sheep before and he has ALWAYS been on a lead since then. Sheep or not.

We were walking down a field a walk through daily that has never had sheep in in the 20 years I've lived here. He was on his extendable lead and it was on loose but he was right next to me. I opened the gate to go through and felt him pull on the lead. Saw the sheep and put the clip on so he couldn't get any closer and the lead snapped. He chased the sheep and would not come back. One jumped into a pond and I finally got him back.

Another girl from the house nearby helped me get the sheep out but it went into shock but was still breathing. I put my coat around it and sat with her whilst she called the farmer and another lad came over and said the farmer was going to be furious as this had happened earlier this morning. I gave them my number said I would pay any vet bills etc and left it with my coat wrapped around it.

The farmer has just called and spoken to my dad as I was too upset. He's shouted at my dad (understandably) and is threatening to get the police involved and wants immediate compensation and threatened to come and shoot my dog. The sheep is alive and is warming back up in this man's house and is expected to make a full recovery and I am going to walk up there later (WITHOUT THE DOG) to check on it.

I just wanted somewhere to write and be devestated. Im upset how the farmer spoke to my dad as it was a complete and utter accident but I understand his frustration. I wouldn't of even walked in the field with my dog if I had any clue there was going to be sheep in there. He hasn't got excited around them since the first time but I would never risk it.

Poorlykitten

Try reading my posts.

I feel very sorry for this poor sheep and others who get chased/injured/killed by dogs. It’s not ok. In this case I do feel OP did all she could, the lead snapped. She has said she will be using a different lead from now on and has learnt from the experience. She’s also apologised to the farmer etc.
Irresponsible dog owners who do not control their dogs are absolute idiots and I can’t stand them. I love all animals, there’s no hierarchy.

The thread has moved on though. Farmers have come on to say they love their animals. They don’t. They look after them because they’re cash.

People breed from dogs and make money from puppies. Some farmers breed only rare breed sheep who don’t get sent to slaughter. You really can’t generalise. However there seems a lot of dog owners on here who think they are ‘above the law’, which clearly states you should have your animal under close control and follow the line of the path. Unfortunately incidents like this are extremely common because people are ignorant and think they are exceptions to the rule.

@Poorlykitten, that’s the funny thing about this thread. A number of posters parading as such animal lovers that they are disgusted at evil farmers but their whole argument is aimed at justifying why it really isn’t so bad if their dogs worry or kill sheep. After all, their beloved dog is the equivalent of a child not a mere worthless sheep?
So stop parading as animal lovers, and accept that you are entitled dog owners who think your dogs are superior to mere livestock. I have close friends and family who consider their dogs family members but they still wouldn’t think themselves the victim if they lost control of their dog and it worried sheep. Because they’re not so bloody entitled!

@Apachepony you have absolutely nailed it.

Unfortunately incidents like this are extremely common because people are ignorant and think they are exceptions to the rule.

I’m sure some people do but not all dog owners are the same. I’m a very responsible dog owner. OPs case also doesn’t seem to be one of her thinking she was an exception to the rule. The lead snapped, she seems genuinely gutted by what happened. She went to visit a farmer who had threatened to turn up with a gun to her house, I think. She must feel very bad to do that. She’s learnt from the experience so she’s hardly thinking she’s an exception to the rule.
People that don’t have their dog on a lead and let them hurt sheep are disgusting. I hope they are the minority.

This thread has become ridiculous.

justifying why it really isn’t so bad if their dogs worry or kill sheep.

They’re idiots. I would never justify it. I love sheep. And all animals.

Yes, it’s great. I’m really enjoying the bonkersness.

Very few people, even the meat eaters I know, believe farmers have real love their animals... But I won’t listen to farmers telling us how much they ‘love’ their animals. They make it sound like their animals have really happy lives. Blah, blah, blah

@TwelvePaws
Strange what people will believe, isn't it, when they are ignorant of the facts and too lazy to bother investigating. Or too busy sticking their fingers in their ears and squeezing their eyes shut for fear that reality would disturb the serenity of their little self righteous bubbles.

It's your prerogative to present yourself as someone who is not interested in the facts, but the appearance of an angry, closed mind isn't going to win over many converts to the vegan life.

There would be no cows or sheep or other farm animals unless people had a dietary interest in them.

Moreover, dogs live lives that are completely different from the lives their nature requires, thanks to the mistaken belief on the part of many people that they are not animals with needs distinct from human needs. Many dogs suffer greatly because of horrendous breeding over the years to produce features that people believe to be cute. And then there's the dogfood industry, with dog owners complaining about farmed animals upsetting their walks but still buying the farming by-products.

mathanxiety

I’m aware of the ‘facts’. I don’t present myself as someone who isn’t interested in them. I’ve seen farming close up. I don’t think it’s right. I’m not trying to convert anyone. People can make their own choices. My OH and kids eat animal products, it’s just not something I want to do.

Humans have fucked up nature, that’s for sure. I don’t have designer dogs, I have cross breeds from rescue centres. And my dogs eat quality diets, not dog food. But yes, they have to eat so all I can do is buy the best quality I can. One of our dogs has a medical condition and can’t eat any meat.

Intense farming is vile. That’s my opinion. You have yours, both are allowed.

*Farming

what about the trauma of the bitch when hee pups are sold?
Honestly, this thread is off its trolley.

By the time puppies go to their new homes at 8 weeks, the bitch has had enough of them. Traumatised she is not.

🤷🏼‍♀️ No I love cows and sheep MORE than than all those evil farmers and everyone else on this thread does!

🤷🏾‍♀️ But I'm acrually a vegan so I'M the most morally superior.

🤷🏻‍♀️ Ummm... I think you'll find I got MY dog from a dog's home and feed him on organically grown golden carrots so I am a far better human than any of you cockapoo owning types!

🤷🏿‍♀️ bloody farmers

🤷‍♀️ bloody dog owners

Don't lots of farmers have dogs though....

🐄🐏🐕🦮🐩🐕‍🦺🐾🐑🐾🐄🐮🐾🐄🐮🐑🐕‍🦺🤷🏿‍♀️🐕🤷‍♀️🐕

Poor you. There are many people who would have hopped it when that happened and certainly not have contacted the farmer to admit it. you did the right thing and got it out quickly well done.

Consider a long line (not retractable type as you can’t see if mechanism or lead failing in those types) instead. Consider some professional dog training centred around livestock. It is worth its weight in gold. The farmer won’t shoot your dog now it never actually attacked a sheep and you responded quickly and effectively to stop the dog. I wouldnt go to see the farmer personally. You did your best offered to pay any compensation and leave it at that. Anyway no doubt the sheep is fine!

Ultimately the farmer's concern is that the sheep would die violently in a manner that did not yield a profit, instead of one that did.
There is a massive difference between
a) being chased round and round a field while terrified, snapped at, bitten with lumps of flesh removed, having ears ripped off, a flank gashed and so on, and then, still not being dead, having to hang around in the field in absolute agony for anything from half an hour to the next morning, until the vet gets there to despatch, and
b) being loaded onto a lorry for captive bolt stunning and slaughter at the end of it - with no awareness that that is what's going to happen.

FlamingGreatGalaahs

U ok hun? Xxxxxxx. 🤪

There is a massive difference between
a) being chased round and round a field while terrified, snapped at, bitten with lumps of flesh removed, having ears ripped off, a flank gashed and so on, and then, still not being dead, having to hang around in the field in absolute agony for anything from half an hour to the next morning, until the vet gets there to despatch, and
b) being loaded onto a lorry for captive bolt stunning and slaughter at the end of it - with no awareness that that is what's going to happen.

Aw, you make it sound so lovely. No awareness, no stress at all.

Your option a is written about with emotive language yet option b isn’t. How strange. 🤔 Both sounds pretty fucking horrendous to me even with your obvious bias.

Perhaps those of us who spend every single day of every week of every single year with sheep know better than random with an opinion on the internet, that a flock of sheep calmly loaded on and off a wagon and then going through professional penning designed to reduce stress in a slaughterhouse and overseen by an independent vet, are far less likely to be less stressed than any sheep being relentlessly chased round an open field by a strange dog.

Object all you like to eating meat if you want, that's a personal choice and not one I personally have an issue with. But don't try and compare the two things and don't you dare ignorantly proclaim that farmers can't possibly care about their animals just as most of them are about to go into relentless 18 hour days at lambing time. Anyone who thinks livestock farmers are 'just in it for the money' has blatantly spent no time whatsoever on a farm.

We haven't had a whole day off in 4 years. We work 7 days a week. We haven't had a holiday in 6 years. Our kitchen is 25 years old. Our bathroom is 30 years old. We are not rich. We basically break even most years, but only if you actually discount the many many unpaid hours we are outside caring for animals at times of the day you are probably fast asleep or enjoying your weekend. If we had to pay someone to do those hours we would be bankrupt in weeks.

So yes, every life counts while they are in our care. Even if one day it's final destination is as tasty lamb chops with lashings of mint sauce it's our duty to give them the best life we can whole they are in our care.

You can scoff and denigrate farmers all you like in the basis of whatever the most recent veganda you have watched on Netflix but it doesn't actually make you right. It just demonstrates, to me, an ignorance of the real people and lives behind the farmer bashing and just a general lack of critical thinking skills.

Scrowy

Change of career perhaps? 🤷🏻‍♀️ You seem to want to prove that anyone who doesn’t agree has no real life knowledgd of farming. Well, I do.

You can try to make out that my knowledge of farming comes from Netflix if you like. I’m not even sure what programmes you’re meaning. But I’ve said my family are farmers, that’s not something I’m hugely proud, in fact it’s something I don’t mention much in real life as I’m ashamed, but it does mean I’ve spent time on farms. I’ve seen the work that goes into the lambing season, I’ve seen calves born, I’ve seen the intensive milking. The farmers in my family don’t have much else in their lives, farming is their identity. I don’t dispute that farmers put in the hours. I’m not ignorant, I just didn’t like what I saw. The farms I know of including my families look after their animals but they’re not animal lovers. If they were they couldn’t send them to be slaughtered. They believe animals are there as a food source, I don’t.

But when my family try to tell me how low their hourly rate is, and they often do, I don’t sympathise. As I’ve told them, if you don’t like it then find another career. I changed career when I was 34 because I wasn’t happy. I was well paid but when I was working 70 hours some weeks, my hourly rate was massively reduced. I didn’t whinge about it though. The truth is my family do what they do because it’s what they know, they’re parents were farmers too. Their children won’t be farmers though, some are training to be vets, others don’t want to have anything to do with anything animal related. Like I said, time’s are changing.

There are several faults that are worse than 'whinging'.

@GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman, my reference to traumatised bitches was in response to a ridiculous comment about poor little lammykins being ripped from the ewes' sides and packed, bleating in terror, onto a lorry bound for the abattoir.

I’m not trying to convert anyone.

Any boy are you succeeding...

Any boy are you succeeding...

I’m succeeding in trying not to convert anyone? Erm.... ? Everyone has a brain, they can think for themselves.

We get one life and choose our own path. What people choose to do with their life really is their own choice, thankfully, I just think facts should be available. There’s no humane, stress free way to slaughter an animal. My partner and children know that and choose to eat meat. I know that and choose not to. There’s just no need for lies.

You are succeeding in not converting anyone.

I wouldn't be so confident about the brain bit, or the thinking.

I realise this is an opinion, not a fact, but IMO there is no humane way to keep a dog, given the sort of accommodation most people live in and the nature of dogs, and there is no utility whatsoever involved except in certain strictly defined circumstances.

Yes it's up to people what they do with their own lives, and therefore the excoriation of farmers I have seen here leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Comments on farmers' lack of love for animals are and should be noted as your personal opinion; they are damaging, and not warranted. It is not OK to condemn a large swathe of society based only on observations of your own family's approach to their livestock and comments on their long hours.

It is also, for the foreseeable, up to people what they do with animals' lives - up to a point. The point where free choice ends is where the law steps in with requirements we are all obliged to comply with. In the case of dog walkers using farmland or open land for recreation, an effective lead is required, and your opinions on farming are irrelevant to the reality of that.

mathanxiety

I’m not really sure what you’re arguing with me over. You’ve said I’m succeeding in not converting anyone to a vegan lifestyle when I’ve already said I wasn’t trying to. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t try to convert my family that I live with never mind anyone else. People can make their own choices, I just think they should know the facts. Farmers are reluctant to present those facts, as the reality of killing animals is quite brutal. People who eat animal products often don’t want to hear it either, my OH included, because it’s not pleasant.

You think there is no humane way to keep a dog, okay. Our dogs are genuinely loved and well cared for, I do everything possible to keep them healthy and make them live a long life. I don’t send them to be killed. 🤷🏻‍♀️ My dogs have a very good home, we’re responsible and dogs have long been human companions. I wouldn’t have dogs personally in a small house with a small garden, we have lots of space for them. I don’t buy from breeders. Some dog owners are a disgrace, granted, but that’s not us. Our dogs needed a home and we provide an excellent one.

I completely stand by my comments about farmers not loving their animals. Good farmers take care of their animals needs but you can’t love something that you send to be killed and used for human gain. Your definition of love is different to mine if you think you can. And it’s not just from observing my family, I know lots of farmers through them. I will never agree that farming animals is right but I do accept that farmers work hard, long hours and at the moment there is demand for what they supply. The farmers I know are ‘good at what they do’, I just think what they do is morally wrong and hope that one day it stops altogether.

My dogs are only ever off lead on my enclosed land or friends enclosed land. I would never let them off lead anywhere else because any dog can lose all recall if they see something that interests them, whether that be a squirrel or a sheep. I think I could trust one of our dogs around anything but I can’t be 100% so I don’t take the risk. Cases like this, where a farmer has threatened to go to someone’s house with a gun make me very glad I never take that risk. This farmer was clearly out of control and shouldn’t have access to a gun. I have a few similar stories from my family about other farmers over the years, I’d love to share them to show this isn’t that uncommon but I think they might be outing. I’d never want to upset a farmer though. 😬