Sheep's neck ripped out in 'frenzied' attack as farmer issues warning to dog owners
WARNING: This article contains graphic images
Last updated 27th Aug 2024
A gruesome picture's emerged of what's left of a sheep following a suspected dog attack on a farm near Moffat.
WARNING: This article contains a graphic image.
Police are investigating the incident, which happened at Craigieburn Farm - just off the A708 road to Selkirk - sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday (August 13th and 14th).
Owner Matthew White told Greatest Hits Radio it isn’t the first time his livestock have been killed.
“We have had several separate dog attacks, killing about 15 ewes and lambs over a few years," he said. "Just before Christmas, two dogs chased my Welsh cob breeding mares and badly lamed Joyful."
And he added: "Uncontrolled dogs have attacked my working sheepdogs - one was bitten badly on his face so he can’t see properly out of his left eye. I've also been bitten in the face by an uncontrolled dog when I was trying to protect my sheepdogs from a loose dog attack."
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The farmer's urging dog owners to be more responsible in an effort to prevent more needless deaths, and keep dogs on a lead. He's also installed an electric fencing in a bid to deter another attack.
Warning - graphic image follows
"I don’t want to shoot the dogs," he said. "I have never shot a dog, and I don’t want to, but my options are getting limited when dog owners repeatedly let the dogs chase and kill my sheep and horses. If you haven’t got time to look after a dog properly then don’t keep a dog.
"As a shepherd you expect problems, you are trained to look for anything unusual or a sick sheep. From the way she was lying I could tell she had been killed by dogs and the grass was trampled down with wool on the ground. It's such a pointless waste and hideous death.
"The dogs must have been in a frenzy; her neck was ripped out and eaten to her spine from her chin to her chest, I hope she died quickly; hopefully, she broke her neck when they chased her into the gate, and they didn’t eat her alive."
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It comes just days before a Borders farmer is due to stand trial - charged with stalking the owner of a dog-walking business and repeatedly threatening to shoot the animals in his care.
Mandy Grierson, whose address was given as Cloich Farm, Peebles, is alleged to have committed the offence at Cloich Forest, Peebles, and elsewhere, between April 3rd and August 25th last year.
She has also been charged with exposing the man to danger at Cloich Farm on June 12th last year, by driving a tractor carrying an insecure tree trunk in a culpable or reckless manner, whereby the loader and its load is alleged to have passed over the top of the man's van.
Grierson denied both charges when she appeared in the dock at Selkirk Sheriff Court, and a trial date was set for August 20th.
Matthew said: "Without the livestock, the meadows will disappear under non-native, factory-farmed Sitka spruce trees. Please help us to support nature and stop letting your dog’s kill our livestock and disturb ground-nesting birds."
Anyone with information on the Moffat attack is urged to contact police on 101, quoting reference number CR/0299498/24.
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