Last week, Gemma McKechnie of the Dartmoor Livestock Protection Society reported 19 sheep attacks by dogs for 2023. The BBC says dogs are to blame.
Recently, farmers have blamed repeated attacks on local dog parents, who let their dogs roam without leads within Dartmoor. According to DevonLive, over $328,000 of livestock were “severely injured or killed by dogs in 2022.” Astonishingly, this makes Dartmoor the second most affected region by cost in the UK.
That article also mentions a survey conducted by NFU Mutual, a rural insurance provider. 60 percent of dog owners admitted that their dogs chased livestock. However, less than half found it harmful in any way. Unfortunately, that is simply just not true.
What and where is Dartmoor?
Dartmoor National Park is a protected natural upland measuring 368 square miles and filled with grass-covered hills, bogs, and granite boulders. Interestingly, Dartmoor is both a public park and a working landscape where farmers set out their livestock to graze. Per their website, the law allows farmers to shoot dogs that are “worrying” livestock.
Although park officials ask that dogs are always on leads, they specifically require it during lambing season. From March 1 to the end of July, dogs pose a great danger to young lambs, separating them from their mothers.
Dog parents need to be responsible for their pups
According to Phoebe Ridley from NFU Mutual South West, farmers have seen dog walkers, “often on their mobile phones with their pets out of sight, and seemingly unaware of the carnage their dog could cause.” Mckechnie from the Livestock Protection Society, also said, “There seems to be a lot more people with dogs that do not have basic training and that is not acceptable.”
Since COVID, the number of dog parents has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people may have underestimated just what it means to care for a dog.
