A farmer who has had enough with livestock worrying has warned that any dogs off their leads in her fields will be shot.
27-year-old Megan Needham, who works on the family farm in Rivington, Lancashire, has used social media to highlight the scourge of livestock worrying.
She said her sheep have been attacked 15 times since November 2018, and that ten have died as a result of injuries sustained by out-of-control dogs.
Ms Needham has even considered organising a dog walk in Rivington to raise awareness of livestock worrying in a bid to educate the public on the reasons behind why farmers ask for dogs to be kept on leads when near livestock.
“As a local farmer I would like to work with the public and educate people properly about the dangers that can happen with dogs and livestock this is following a few unfortunate events,” she said.
But following a recent dog attack on her sheep on 19 February, she said she won't hesitate to shoot dogs if spotted off their lead in her fields.
In the most recent incident, Ms Needham said she spotted a group of people with 4 dogs running off the lead in a field full of sheep.
She said: “I asked nicely if she (dog owner) would put the dogs on leads in the field, her response was 'well my dogs don't chase sheep'.
“Any dogs found off leads in our fields will be shot, so keep leads on them - we have had enough now!”
It is an offence to allow a dog to worry livestock and farmers have legal rights, under certain conditions, to shoot the dog if they feel the livestock is in danger.
The National Sheep Association recommends that farmers only shoot dogs as a 'last resort', as the legality of a shooting depends on whether a farmer had a lawful excuse for shooting the dog in that individual circumstance.
It follows NFU Mutual releasing statistics on Monday (25 February) which shows that livestock worrying is at a historic record high.
The rural insurer estimates that the total cost of livestock worrying to the agricultural industry exceeded £1.2m in 2018.
