Val has over 40 years experience as a smallholder in the West of England. She currently runs a flock of 20 Ouessant sheep and keeps hens and grows lots of veg. She formally lived on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset and ran the award winning business The Woolly Shepherd from 2006-2012 but is now based in Cornwall where she has lived since 2013. Follow life on this permaculture based holding where there is never a dull moment
Friday, April 27, 2007
What is more likely to worry and kill sheep? a pitbull or a nice family labrador?...........The labrador!! Now I know most people will not believe it but we caught 2 labradors sheep worrying a few weeks ago ..........luckily no sheep were hurt as they were interupted just in time but today we faced something much more serious.
2 weeks ago a nice strong lamb disappeared from one of our fields...........we were cross as we put it down to a fox. On Monday, a lamb who was one of twins (whose mother had only one half of her udder working so he was receiving a top up bottle of milk) had his bottle at 9am and was fine and jolly. At 2pm we received a phone call to say there was a dead lamb, it was him! His face was damaged but we put it down to crows discovering a body..............they can be quite nasty...........very odd though???
Today I gathered up the sheep and there was a lamb missing...........I scoured the field and found her.........with huge teethmarks in her head and neck, barely alive. We rushed her to the vet but she died 3 hours later. All the sheep have now been moved to another field several miles from this one.
Who did this..................well the suspect is a black labrador seen lurking near the field unsupervised by a villager...........please everyone keep your dogs with you at all times! Each of these lambs was worth £100 in lost profit, plus a vets bill, and when things are tight as they really are for us small farmers thats a lot of money lost to a dog whose owners are blissfully unaware of his or her activities!
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Sad day today
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3 comments:
Hi Val,
Just discovered your blog - it's fantastic! We're hoping to get some shep soon, but we have to get more land first - that's probably the tricky bit! Have to make do with chickens, ducks and geese at the moment!
Really enjoyed seeing the pictures of your sheep.
The exhibition looks interesting, shame you're so far away.
Lisa
Hi Val, yes, sad to see someones nice pet dog doing such damage..and all too common I'm afraid. I may well be totally wrong, but aren't you entitled to shoot any dog beleived to be worrying sheep..particularly at lambing time?
Regards,
Mike.
Thanks for the comments! Yes I am entitled to shoot any dog off a lead in a field of sheep whether its worrying them or not! In practice I warn anyone who I see walking their dog off a lead in any of the fields in which I have sheep. The ones that really cause trouble are those who have bunked off without their owners.....I'd gladly shoot them!( but I really would call the police as I don't have a gun!)
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