Ram is killed in loose dog attack

She found the sheep’s lifeless body, with half its face torn away, as she checked fields between Cooden and Normans Bay on Tuesday morning.

Now she has threatened to shoot any dog caught loose and posing a threat to her flock, and has warned dog owners that she is within her rights to do so.

Tracy has spent more than 10 years rearing sheep on her 200-acre farm, and has a flock of around 160 ewes, now carrying next spring’s lambs.

It is not the first time her sheep have been attacked by stray dogs, and now she says she has had enough of irresponsible owners.

“The ram I’ve just lost cost around £400, but it is more than that,” she told the Observer. “It also represents years of work trying to establish a flock, and it is down to people not respecting the countryside.”

Tracy said that three public footpaths cross her land, all of which she has taken the trouble to clearly mark with yellow posts.

She has also put up signs reminding dog owners to keep their pets on leads and not to allow them to run free when there is livestock about.

But she added: “It seems to me a lot of people just don’t care, and are arrogant enough to think they can do just what they like when they’re out in the countryside.

“I recently had a group of runners and their followers pouring across the fields, some with dogs roaming free, completely oblivious of the effect they were having on the sheep.

“After they’d gone I had to pull two ewes which had bolted in sheer fright out of a ditch, and when they’re in lamb there’s always the risk they may abort.

“Apart from the trauma to the animal, that’s a loss farmers can ill afford financially.”

Tracy said that sheep are easily stressed, and what some dog owners may take as playfulness on the part of their pets can panic sheep with potentially fatal results.

The Defra Countryside Code states that dogs should be kept on a short lead to prevent them from scaring farm animals and wildlife. The code can be viewed online at: www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk/countryside_code/