I thought some of you may be interested to hear the outcome of our sheep worrying incident in December.
Our neighbour's dog jumped their fence and chased my 2 x ram lambs (that I had told them would be in the field, as I could see this coming). I heard barking from the house, went to investigate and found the dog in the stream with 1 lamb but couldn't find the other lamb. I assumed the worst initially and thought he had drowned but we found him 30 mins later 2 fields over, having gone over at least 2 fences. The dogs owner came to collect the dog, after I had caught it, but refused to help look for the missing lamb.
The lamb which went over the fences had damage to his penis and soft tissue damage to his leg, which led to him not being weight bearing and having to be housed for 2 weeks to recover. All OK now, thankfully.
I reported the incident to the police. They were strongly pushing me towards community resolution (basically she pays my costs, says sorry and that's the end of it). I refused and said I wanted them to take formal legal action. It took weeks for them to progress but in the end she admitted sheep worrying and was given a caution (apparently that was the most they could do as my losses were not great) and I then had to pursue her for costs seperately. I wrote asking for payment in 14 days or I would take legal action. On day 14 I received a letter from her solicitor saying that she refused to pay unless I allowed a fencing contractor on to my land, at their convenience, to knock posts in for a new fence. I had already given permission for access, but not until spring when the ground dries up. It is only 15m or so of fencing (and already has a perfectly good stock proof fence), so no big deal to do posts by hand. I wrote back advising that their conditions of payment were unacceptable and I would be initiating court proceedings. This morning they dropped off a cheque for my costs (vets bill, bedding and feed while housed and decrease in value of ram lamb no longer suitable for breeding).
The best bit of all is that they have just put their house on the market and we will soon no longer be neighbours. That was a v expensive day for them! If they had been v apologetic, done all they could on the day and offered to pay the vets bill I probably would never have even called the police.
Our neighbour's dog jumped their fence and chased my 2 x ram lambs (that I had told them would be in the field, as I could see this coming). I heard barking from the house, went to investigate and found the dog in the stream with 1 lamb but couldn't find the other lamb. I assumed the worst initially and thought he had drowned but we found him 30 mins later 2 fields over, having gone over at least 2 fences. The dogs owner came to collect the dog, after I had caught it, but refused to help look for the missing lamb.
The lamb which went over the fences had damage to his penis and soft tissue damage to his leg, which led to him not being weight bearing and having to be housed for 2 weeks to recover. All OK now, thankfully.
I reported the incident to the police. They were strongly pushing me towards community resolution (basically she pays my costs, says sorry and that's the end of it). I refused and said I wanted them to take formal legal action. It took weeks for them to progress but in the end she admitted sheep worrying and was given a caution (apparently that was the most they could do as my losses were not great) and I then had to pursue her for costs seperately. I wrote asking for payment in 14 days or I would take legal action. On day 14 I received a letter from her solicitor saying that she refused to pay unless I allowed a fencing contractor on to my land, at their convenience, to knock posts in for a new fence. I had already given permission for access, but not until spring when the ground dries up. It is only 15m or so of fencing (and already has a perfectly good stock proof fence), so no big deal to do posts by hand. I wrote back advising that their conditions of payment were unacceptable and I would be initiating court proceedings. This morning they dropped off a cheque for my costs (vets bill, bedding and feed while housed and decrease in value of ram lamb no longer suitable for breeding).
The best bit of all is that they have just put their house on the market and we will soon no longer be neighbours. That was a v expensive day for them! If they had been v apologetic, done all they could on the day and offered to pay the vets bill I probably would never have even called the police.
