Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts

Friday, 30 August 2024

Veterinary nurse pleads guilty to owning dogs that worried livestock

This story is about a veterinary nurse, Evie Watson, who, it has been suggested, should have known better when going out into the countryside with her two dogs near to a farm called Hall Pastures Farm where there were sheep and lambs. She didn't have one of her dogs, Beans, on a lead and her other dog's lead was dropped as she tried to untangle him. That dog's name is Patcho.


In short, both her dogs became free and they ran off and worried, attacked and killed sheep and lambs. In all, it's reported by The Times that her dogs killed 15 ewes (adult female sheep) and lambs in an horrific attack. Further, the newspaper reports that she did not call the police until the following day.

It's been traumatic for the farmer as you might expect. Lynne Parnell, said that she felt "very sickened" by the attacks and mentioned that she had wished that Watson had told her what had happened straight away.

It's been traumatic for the ewes who lost their lambs. In a victim impact statement she said: "Farmers like us work hard, and our livelihood depends on us producing good quality livestock and [it] is a long term enterprise. A disruption such as this can take years to recover from".

Evie Watson attended Southern Derbyshire magistrates' court on May 17 and pleaded guilty to owning dogs that worried livestock. The magistrates told her that it had been an horrific incident but they recognised her efforts in trying to track down her dogs, one of which had collapsed. She took him to the vet. Watson had tried to follow her dogs and bruised herself as she scrambled in bushes but she lost sight of them. She asked her family and ex-partner for help and they assisted. She found her dogs after 3.5 hours.

So Watson did make some big efforts but she's been criticised by Derbyshire Police. Sergeant Chris Wilkinson of the rural crime team said: "No one ever wants to believe that their dog is capable of hurting other animals but as has been seen time and time again they can and do return to their predator instincts, and chase livestock if given the chance. That's why it is vital that dogs are always kept on leads around livestock."

That's the point: dogs revert to their grey wolf ancestors' instincts and become predators when given the chance. The same happens to domestic cats. The dog is a predator and as such they must be on a lead under the circumstances described.

Separately, a survey of 1,100 dog owners by NFU Mutual has found that 68% of people let their pets off the lead in the countryside last year. And almost 8% admitted that their dog had chased livestock. However, 46% believed that the dog was not capable of causing death or injury to farm animals. While 49% of the respondents in this survey said that the dog always came back when called. In other words 51% don't. And almost half of dog owners don't believe that their dog is a predator it seems to me!

As Watson was convicted of owning dogs that worried livestock, she was ordered to pay £750 which included a £475 fine, legal costs and a victim surcharge. The farmer said that the punishment was insulting but added that she at least received justice.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Tuesday, 16 May 2023

If you eat cheese, you are actively supporting babies being taken from their mothers

If you eat cheese, you are actively supporting babies being taken from their mothers
If you eat cheese, you are actively supporting babies being taken from their mothers. Screenshot.

This is not about cats. I'm sorry. But sometimes needs must as they say. This is about cows and their calves. It's about the production of milk. You may know that farmers take calves away from their mothers at a very young age so that they don't steal the milk from humans. Farmers want all the milk that the mother produces to be processed and sold to humans which is a bit bizarre because this is cow's milk and it is designed to be drunk by calves. Cow's milk does all kinds bad things to humans such as bloat, diarrhoea and I'm told that it even weakens bones. A lot of people are lactose intolerant which is why they suffer from bloating when they drink cow's milk.



So, the end product is no good anyway. In the meantime, the mother suffers the emotional anguish of having her baby taken away from her which is an anguish matched by the distress suffered by the calf. Mothers will kill to save their calves. That's the depth of the bond. Calves are then placed in small patches or tiny enclosures (see image below) separated from other calves and of course their mothers which is more cruelty to animals because cows are social creatures.

The whole process is designed to make farming more efficient. It is relating to livestock as assets. In fact, inanimate assets pretty well because there is little regard to their sentience.

If you eat cheese, you are actively supporting babies being taken from their mothers
Screenshot.

The more you watch these sorts of videos the more you understand the way farmers handle their livestock and the more you are driven away from dairy and meat products. The reason behind the video is that PETA want people to think like that and give up these products and become vegan. I am on board with that campaign. I've not made it yet but I am heading towards being a vegan or at least a vegetarian.

Thursday, 18 August 2022

All the dairy cows want to lick this farm cat

All the dairy cows want to lick this farm cat
All the dairy cows want to lick this farm cat. Screenshot.

This is a cute and brilliant interspecies relationship. But in this instance, all the cows want to be friends with this farm cat and wash her. It must feel good to be so popular. An interesting aspect of the video is that clearly domestic cats enjoy being licked by another animal. 

Domestic cats are known to be fastidiously clean but here we have a cat which allows themselves to have the saliva of a cow deposited all over their head. You might think that this would be uncomfortable or even unacceptable but no. They like it and by the look of it seek out those licks.

You may have to click on the play button twice to get the video to work for which I apologise but this is Google software and I cannot improve on it. I apologise for the music. I did not make the video and I wouldn't have added music like this to it but the visuals are good.

Tuesday, 1 June 2021

Snares are injuring or killing outside domestic cats

Snares are legal in the UK. Farmers and landowners swear by them, considering them to be a "necessary and humane means of controlling foxes which kill a range of vulnerable and rare birds as well livestock". A spokesperson for the Moorland Association which represents landowners said that they follow a code of best practice which goes beyond the law to ensure "the highest animal welfare".

Domestic cats at risk of being snared by farmer
Outside cats are at risk or being harmed or killed by farmer's snares put down to kill foxes. Image by Richard Revel from Pixabay


It is hard to imagine how that statement can be believed when non-targeted animals are inhumanely killed by snares. Also, without doubt, killing foxes in this way is inhumane. We know that farmers have to make a living but do they have to be cruel to animals to achieve that objective?

An animal welfare charity, Animal Aid, is at the forefront of a campaign to ban snares. They argue that in the Queen's speech, at the opening of Parliament, the government promised to address animal welfare issues and to set the highest standards of animal welfare but it is allowing the use of snares which cause indiscriminate killing of both domestic and wild animals.

Once an animal is caught in a snare the wire cats into the flesh causing acute pain. There are even stories of animals biting off their own limbs to be released. A campaigning group, Moorland Monitors say that they see the cruelty first hand both to pets and wildlife.

In 2016, The Mirror newspaper reports that a majority of UK members of Parliament voted to ban the manufacture, possession and sale and use of snares. But the country opted for a voluntary code which states that snares must be inspected daily and animals caught in them should be killed humanely. This code of practice appears not to be followed and not to have protected innocent animals caught up in this objectionable practice which includes wondering domestic cats allowed outside.

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