EDUCATIONAL VISITS Manor Farm is fully accredited by the Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme (CEVAS)
THE FARM 
Contact us for availability.
Archived News
1st May 2015
It has been a tough week for Christopher’s sheep. They have been attacked by a dog and left for dead in the field.
The results of the attack are shown below so please don't look if you are not comfortable with blood or the results of a dog attack.
This was a completely pointless and savage attack which was quite avoidable if the dog had been under close control. Now it has the taste of blood and the thrill of the kill it will do so again.
With four lambs now dead and another six sheep severely injured in sick bay, we do what we can to make them comfortable and try to prevent infection from the dog’s saliva.
It took almost four hours to sort through the sheep with the vet, a painstaking ordeal, shaving the fleece off carefully and slowly to expose the wounds which as seen below were a chopped up mess. The wounds were flushed with disinfectant and each animal given pain relief and antibiotics to try to prevent infection.
This is the reality of a dog loose in the countryside.
Each of the sheep was savaged around the neck including this ewe with deep chunks removed from its throat.
The lamb’s necks look as though they have been through a mincer in a horror movie.
As the disinfectant was syringed into a wound at the top, it squirted out from a wound below.
The oldest lamb was five weeks old and the youngest was just three weeks old.
Those poor animals lay in pain all night and one was half eaten by the time I found it; possibly eaten whilst it lay wounded in the field.
I know in the big scheme of things there are worse things happening in the World, but for Christopher who has started up his own pedigree flock of Hampshire Down sheep this is devastating, heartbreaking with four dead so far and more injured, they need to convalesce, but even once they have improved it doesn’t feel as though we can put them back out to grass at the risk of this happening again. The whole flock will be terrified of dogs now, they were all traumatised by the chasing and attack and the survivors were found in a very distressed state.
Unfortunately many dog owners don’t realise what their dog is capable of, but some do. Dogs in the countryside need to be under close control especially around livestock and those known to chase anything should be prevented form escaping from home.
We are pleased that people want to enjoy the countryside that we farm and maintain, but they need to understand that this is our place of work and our livelihood. Christopher has been building up his flock over the past four years and these lambs are the result of a lot of hard graft over the past year.
This is a place of British food production and a working environment that is quite unusual in that our ‘factory floor’ also has public footpaths across it.
Whilst we try to balance the need for food production with wildlife projects and public access on public rights of way, we need the understanding of those who enjoy visiting the countryside that this is a place of work, not just a pretty picture, but a working and living countryside.
The National Farmers Union reminds dog owners that when walking with dogs in fields with livestock, the advice is to keep your dog close, under effective control, and on a short lead. If you feel threatened release your dog so you can both get to safety separately. Last autumn NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe said: “Remember that our animals are our livelihood and we can’t risk having them distressed, hurt or killed by dogs with irresponsible owners. So, be responsible by following a few simple do’s and don’ts and back British farming. ”
If you are ever unsure about what you can and cannot do in the countryside, which does all have a landowner/ tenant farmer or forester etc, then please begin with the Countryside Code or ask a countryside warden or the land manager if you know them. There is a lot of useful information on the National Farmers Union website, the Farmers Weekly and Farmers Guardian websites, Surrey County Council and National Trust, to name but a few.
Back