Livestock worrying still a big cause for concern
Despite the success of a major initiative to crack down on dog attacks on sheep and other farm animals, those involved in the campaign yesterday said they remained committed to continuing to reduce the financial and psychological costs of this widespread crime.
Figures released by rural insurers NFU Mutual showed that 2019 had seen a 30 per cent fall in the cost of sheep worrying and other attacks on the year in Scotland. The costs of such incidents rose by 15 per cent in England, with the total cost to the UK more than £1.2 million in the past year.
Martin Malone, NFU Mutual Scotland manager, said: “As the main insurer of Scotland’s farmers, we’re encouraged that dog attacks on farm animals in Scotland are starting to fall – but more needs to be done to put an end to livestock worrying.”
He said that a significant number of dog owners still failed tot realise that their pets were capable of attacking and killing large numbers of lambs and sheep.
“Even if a dog doesn’t make contact, the distress and exhaustion of the chase can cause sheep to die or miscarry their lambs,” said Malone. He added that one of the trends most concerning farmers was a steady increase in dogs allowed outside unaccompanied when their owners are out (56 per cent in 2020, rising from 43 per cent in 2018).
Police were increasingly finding that unsupervised dogs were escaping from owners’ gardens and roaming fields, attacking livestock.
The concern was supported by one in six of survey respondents admitting their dog had escaped from home in the past – confirming farmers’ fears.
Malone said: “Whether owners don’t know or don’t care about the carnage their pets are causing, these people are giving a bad name to the responsible majority who do keep their pets under control.”
Both the Mutual and NFU Scotland have been involved in the campaign with Police Scotland’s Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) initiative to highlight the reality of livestock attacks.
The aim of the campaign, “Your Dog – Your Responsibility”, is to ensure dog owners understand the distressing nature as well as emotional and financial impacts such incidents can have, not just on farmers but everyone having to deal with the aftermath.
The union’s chief executive, Scott Walker, said that this year’s figures were extremely encouraging and were in no small part down to SPARC, but he added that, despite the initial success, dog worrying remained a big issue for farmers.
“We are keen to keep going with this initiative and build on these positive results,” said Walker.
“Scottish farmers and crofters continue to be blighted by dog worrying. It is encouraging that these figures show a decrease but we believe that there is still a chronic underreporting of this problem.”
He said that the union would continue to engage fully and encourage the Scottish Government to look more closely at relevant dog legislation in 2020.