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.

You're entitled to your opinions on farming and farmers, but you are not entitled to present your opinions as fact.

All of your thoughts on farmers and farming need to be prefaced by a big, fat IMO.

Your anecdotes on farmers and guns need to be prefaced by the disclaimer that what you are relating is anecdotal, not facts, not data.

Your thoughts on your family pet omit reference to how you honour its nature You actively curtail its instincts to hunt prey, it seems. Do you think it's enough to give a dog shelter and food? What function in your life does the dog perform and is that fair on the dog?

If you are feeding your dogs tinned dog food, you are still contributing to animals being sent to the slaughter. (Most committed vegans I know won’t subscribe to having pets, they believe owning any captured animal is unethical). If you are feeding your children meat, you are doing the same. You can’t complain about how hideous sending lambs to the slaughter is, if you are still supporting that industry.

@mathanxiety, sorry, I was tired and the irony passed me by.

@TwelvePaws, a huge amount of effort has gone into designing animal handling systems that minimise stress.

Whatever you eat, animals die somewhere along the line to provide it, unless it's grown in sealed glasshouses that allow nothing but the crop to exist, thus diminishing local wildlife (and even then, insects get in). On a farm local to me a couple of thousand pigeons are shot each year over cereals.

Hi all, gone wild on here hasn't it would! Would you mind making a new thread please?

It comes through to my emails (I am definitely not tech savvy enough to stop this happening!) and is absolutely clogging up my inbox. 😂

Thanks x

Does it matter if a farm animal isn’t “loved”? Does the cow care? The old farming adage “look after your animals and your animals will look after you” is still true today. Stressed animals, whether a cow hock deep in shit or sheep being worried by dogs are not productive. Hence most farmers look after their needs, and most livestock is not in need of cuddles.

I’ve found most cattle don’t give a toss about the person caring for them, the odd one is friendly, as in comes up to say hello and have a head scratch, but the majority are happier with their fellow cattle. Same with sheep. They’re not scared, just generally far more interested in food etc.

Dogs kept with no thought for their needs, or what they were designed to do is surely more cruel, a sledge dog in a small urban house with minimal exercise can’t be genuinely happy. No doubt many dog issues are because their basic needs as animals are not being met, yet very few suggest dog keeping is cruel.

(Sorry OP)

I used to work in an abbatoir. I've stood 20 ft away from the whole process from alive cow to bits of cow.

If I could choose a way to die it would just like that. No stress, not knowing a damn thing about it.

Stress causes the meat to spoil. It releases a hormone called cortisol which makes the meat dark in colour and bitter tasting. Millions upon millions of pounds are spent designing ways to keep the animals stress free before slaughter as to let them be scared would be counter productive.

Whilst I was working at the abbatoir a vegan group started coming along every Monday and protesting. They would throw water at the cattle, shove phones into their faces, get into the pens with them, climb on the wagons and tractors. The amount of dark cuts from stressed animals that we had to dispose of increased drastically when that started happening....

Hi all, gone wild on here hasn't it would! Would you mind making a new thread please?

🤣 Sorry OP. It has gone slightly off topic. Time to stop posting I think. Hope you, sheep and dog are ok! 🐑 🐕

@EYProvider give it rest.

Your constant attempts at deflecting are not working.

What happens to lambs in the food chain has absolutely zero to do with this.

Vegans have their own agenda.

@Molecule - agree.

People ascribing human attributes to animals are not respecting the animals.

@LadyFlumpalot - Trying to make slaughter sound like a peaceful way of dying is bizarre, whether it’s to justify and make you feel better about eating meat, I don’t know but don’t downplay taking an animals right to live and gruesome death. When you’re in that situation yourself, your opinion will be relevant, as you’re not, it’s not relevant.

Animals are not humans. Slaughtering humans is an act in a completely different category from slaughtering animals to produce food for humans.

And 'gruesome death' is a value judgement, not a fact.

mathanxiety

Bloody hell math,I can’t believe you’re still ranting. Some people will never share your views. Just accept that. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@mathanxiety - Nice demonstration of speciesism there. Humans and animals are both mammals, both have nervous systems and have the ability to feel pain, you can’t differentiate between them both. The slaughter of a human is the same as an animal, whether for food or not.

Ranting?

Do you mean 'disagreeing with you'?

People with a certain pov here are using all sorts of silly turns of phrase, and not coming across as the live and let live sort of folks they purport to be.

LOL @ 'speciesism'.

You only know and can spell that word because you have a human brain.

mathanxiety

Yes, ranting. Sometimes you just have to know when to give up. People who hold views like mine will never agree with people who hold views like yours. No good will come of keeping going on and on. I won’t change my mind, will you change yours? No. OP asked if people wouldn’t mind starting a new thread now it was moving on.

@mathanxiety - Having a human brain is irrelevant, both species are capable of feeling the same fear and pain, their suffering is no less than ours. Humans are good at downplaying such situations because they feel it helps justify their choices, they disassociate themselves from it.

I see you are back again, @TwelvePaws, having a go at me for 'ranting', by which you seem to imply, 'keeping going on and on'.

Having a human brain makes all the difference, @HoneyComb11. Human brains have developed tools to measure and minimise animal stress and suffering. Otoh, even domesticated dogs are capable of chasing sheep all over fields and even into ponds, regardless of the impact on the sheep.

Their close undomesticated relatives hunt other animals in packs, kill them, and eat them while still warm. Should we be allowed to do that? We're all mammals after all.

@TwelvePaws, you do realise that you are being extremely cruel to your 'much loved' dogs by feeding them a vegan diet don't you? I cannot believe you can condone such cruelty to the poor pets, after everything you claim to feel about farm animals. Double standards, much?

@Bisquiteen

What? 🤪

I have 4 dogs. 2 of them eat meat just not dog food from a tin. One is on special diet of dog food with no meat because she has a medical condition. HTH.

Sorry OP if you get a notification about this thread again but sometimes I needed to reply to this idiot!

*3 dogs

Might aswell get it to 700 now 🤷‍♀️

@TwelvePaws, where do you get meat from? Has an animal been killed to obtain said meat? If so, you can't get more hypocritcal than that!!!!!! The cognitive dissonance is astonishing, truly it is 🤪