She had hunted frantically for them for hours, so when Zoe Kerr heard that her two missing dogs were safe she was naturally overjoyed.
Her beloved pets had been found after running off across moorland and given to a local farmer for safe-keeping overnight, she was told.
But Miss Kerr’s relief turned to horror when police went to the farm and found that both dogs had been shot with a bolt gun and their bodies hidden in a barn.Now, a farmer is entitled to shoot dogs worrying his sheep (which is what he claims happened), but only if he catches them in the act. Not if they've been caught and secured. Then it becomes a civil case to take up with the owner.
A police spokesman said: ‘A man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and released on bail. The bodies of the dogs have been seized by the RSPCA pending further investigation.’I predict the police will drop the criminal damage hot potato & turn it over to the RSPCA to prosecute for cruelty. The farmer is unrepentant:
He chained them in the barn and went to check on the flock, when he found three dead lambs.
He said: “There were three lambs killed outright. I saw red. They had attacked the sheep, and once a dog has done something like that you won’t stop them doing it again. I shot them.”
“In a fit of rage I shot them after seeing the suffering they had caused my defenceless sheep. I did it humanely with a captive bolt gun, the type that are used in slaughter houses.”He's undoubtedly an utter scumbag, but how can the RSPCA proceed with a cruelty charge when they have done the same thing..?
Never, never, never give these people money.
12 comments:
'I did it humanely with a captive bolt gun, the type that are used in slaughter houses.'
Did he buy it off Iain Duncan Smith?
I think that this farmer did a terrible and wrong thing in a fit of anger which he says was brought on by the deaths of his lambs. I know nothing else about the man or the woman in this story but dog owners who let their animals roam uncontrolled over moorlands in lambing season are not exactly responsible caring people. They are a genuine problem for sheep farmers and dogs do kill lambs/ induce miscarriages in terrified sheep.
This man needs to answer for what he did because it was illegal and he has no evidence that it was the dogs he killed who were responsible for the deaths of his lambs. However, I cannot agree with the description of him as a “total scumbag” based on a Daily Mail article written from the perspective of a woman who keeps large, potentially dangerous dogs over which she appears to have limited control.
I recently switched my support from the RSPCA to the Dogs Trust as they need the money more, are more compassionate and don’t indulge in politics
She didn't 'let her dogs roam'. They ran off. It happens.
And I call him 'an utter scumbag' because his actions were unnecessary (if he'd shotgunned them in the act, no problem) and he's unrepentant.
He's getting 'bad abuse on Facebook'? Awww. Diddums!
Well trained mature dogs don't normally run off and if they do have a tendency to roam, owners have a duty of care to keep them under better control.
I am not in any way excusing the farmer and I already agreed that he needs to answer for this but there is a good chance that either these dogs or some other loose dogs killed his lambs. It happens.
No offense intended but there are two sides to this. Not balanced or proportionate perhaps but two sides nonetheless.
"They had attacked the sheep, and once a dog has done something like that you won’t stop them doing it again. I shot them.” Nonsense. Both my dogs have pretty keen prey instincts (a greyhound and a longdog)and if given the opportunity I don't doubt that they'd have a go at some livestock. So they don't get that opportunity. I might have more sympathy for him if he had some evidence that these dogs were getting out repeatedly but that does not seem to be the case.
I think utter scumbag is about right.
Ardaric
So this fucking moron put two dogs in with his sheep and then got angry because they did what dogs naturally do? Jeebus!
Okay, scrub that - misread what he did there. That said, he had no evidence that it was these dogs that did the damage, so no sympathy.
I can't say I have a lot of sympathy for the dogs if I'm entirely honest. Whether they were responsible or not doesn't negate the fact they were roaming on farmland.
That said, if the dogs were contained, I see little necessity for their immediate dispatch.
Declaration: I'm not a dog lover, although I've tried it a couple of times in Asia.
If it was young children that had been slaughtered would you give these dogs so much care?
It is lovely that you are so calm and reasonable and never take revenge.
Declaration: I'm not a dog lover, although I've tried it a couple of times in Asia.
Meh!
"Well trained mature dogs don't normally run off..."
They aren't machines. They have a mind of their own.
"I might have more sympathy for him if he had some evidence that these dogs were getting out repeatedly..."
Or as Longrider points out, if he had any evidence they were even the culprits, but that would still only excuse his shooting them in the act. Never after.
"Declaration: I'm not a dog lover, although I've tried it a couple of times in Asia."
Whew! For a minute there, I thought you were going to finish that sentence 'on video'! ;)
"If it was young children that had been slaughtered would you give these dogs so much care?
It is lovely that you are so calm and reasonable and never take revenge."
A) It wasn't young children, and
B) Revenge against an animal is utterly pointless.
"If it was young children that had been slaughtered would you give these dogs so much care?
It is lovely that you are so calm and reasonable and never take revenge." I would also be concerned that a man was raising children in a field so they could be killed and eaten. Humans and sheep are different, at least to me. Even in the hypothetical case you mentioned it would probably be a good idea to make certain you had the right dogs, no?
Ardaric
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