Cow attacked by dog at Salisbury's River Bourne Community Farm
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Last updated 11th Jan 2021
A passerby spotted a dog chasing Highland Cattle at the Laverstock site around 7pm on Saturday (9th January) and manged to intervene.
The farm says the member of the public helped "two young ladies" catch the dog described as a bull terrier.
One cow was left with an injury to its mouth while the remainder of the herd were left "shaken up."
A vet was called and removed a "nasty loose flap of skin."
Meanwhile there's an anxious wait as many of the herd were in calf and stress can make livestock abort their young.
Sara-Jane Hancock, Education and Marketing Manager at River Bourne Community Farm, says things could have been a lot worse.
"Lucky the incident was stopped mid -attack. I was reading an article yesterday where another Highland cow, in calf, in the north of England __was killed by a dog. We know that it can happen so we think we are probably very lucky that the passerby managed to stop it before it got any worse"
DID YOU SEE ANYTHING?
Wiltshire Police are appealing for witnesses to the incident in Laverstock.
"We got a call from a member of the public around 7.30pm on Saturday (09/01) reporting a bull terrier in a field of cows. Two young girls were also seen with the dog. Officers attended and spoke to the manager who confirmed a cow had been badly bitten on the lip and an electric fence had been damaged."
"The girls and dog had left the area by the time officers had arrived. We are appealing for witnesses to this incident. If anyone can help, please call 101 quoting crime reference number 54210002490."
Last month an alpaca had to be put down after being attacked at private residence near South Gorley in the New Forest.
PLEA TO KEEP DOGS UNDER CONTROL
Sara-Jane Hancock is asking all dog owners to act responsibly.
"It's law to keep your dog under control near livestock. Time after time we hear my dog wouldn't do that, my dog wouldn't chase sheep. There's not bad dogs, there's badly trained dogs. It's not just that, you don't know how your dog is going to react around livestock until it happens. Any dog could be as good as gold all its life then suddenly see something it want's to go for. Don't assume you know your dog as well as you do and that it will never attack livestock because it might. Always, always, please keep your dog on a lead when when walking past fields with livestock."