'Vicious' dog attack forces Moffat farmer to plead with owners
His goats and horses have also been attacked previously.
Last updated 16th Aug 2024
A Moffat farmer found one of his sheep brutally killed by a dog earlier this week in one of his fields at Craigieburn Farm.
Police are investigating the incident that happened between Tuesday and Wednesday
They’re asking anyone who saw anything suspicious to come forward.
Matthew White, owner of the farm says that this isn’t the first time his livestock have been attacked or killed.
“We have had several separate dog attacks, killing about 15 ewes and lambs over a few years. Just before Christmas, two dogs chased my Welsh cob breeding mares and badly lamed Joyful.
‘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.’
White adds that unpredicted attacks such as this put the entire farm on red alert as dogs can jump over the boundary walls from the public walk and forest.
‘I don’t want to shoot the dogs’
He fears that one day he might have to shoot a dog to protect his livestock from another death but for now, he has put up electric fencing to deter another attack.
‘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.’
He wants owners to be more responsible and aware of the harm their dogs can do, even if they think their pets aren’t capable of a savage attack.
‘Please keep your dogs on a lead in fields even if they have no livestock’
The dead ewe was found when White was walking around his farm doing stock checks and noticed the flock in the Waterfall field was unsettled.
**Please be aware this photo is graphic and may upset viewers.**
‘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.’
For 30 years, Matthew White has owned the farm and used it for livestock production of nature and breeding sheep.
He says that a third of his land is rewilded and the rest is wildflower meadows that have never been fertilised or had pesticide.
‘The biodiversity is wonderful, and it all depends on our native species Scottish Blackface sheep, Bagot goats, and Welsh cob horses grazing the wildflower meadows.
‘Without the livestock, the meadows will disappear under nonnative, 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.’