13 sheep killed after dog attack on Northamptonshire farm

Written by William Kellett

A farmer in Desborough has been left “distraught” after a dog attacked and killed 13 of his sheep and injured four more.

Police believe the attack took place between between 10:00pm on Friday, November 6, and 7:30am on Saturday, November 7.

Daniel Howes who was a neighbour of the farmer told Northantslive that around £1,200 had been lost by the farmer after the dog attack.

He called me on Saturday morning. He had been out checking on his livestock as early as possible and had come across this horrible scene.

“He asked me to give him a hand with loading up the dead sheep and getting the rest into pens.

“We called the vet and he started treating them straightaway, but we had to humanely shoot some of them just to put them out of their misery.

Some people have claimed that it could have been a fox, but a fox could not have done this amount of damage – they are lambs but they’re about 12 months old.

“This was a dog that was in the field for a few hours and it could even have been more than one dog.

“I can’t tell you how distraught and upset he was. It was his birthday on Sunday and it completely ruined his day.”

A spokesperson from Northamptonshire Police said:

This happened overnight on November 6 to November 7, when 13 lambs were attacked and killed by an unknown animal, believed to be a large dog. The value of the loss is about £1,200.

Howes had a message for dog owners taking their dogs out on farmland:

“Dog owners have to keep their dogs on the lead, but they have to know where their dogs are. This incident was not just dogs off their lead, this was dogs not being kept properly and that caused this devastation.”

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