A FARMER from Trebartha, near North Hill, is asking anyone with information to come forward regarding a recent sheep worrying incident, involving three of his rams.

On Saturday, September 2, Neil Dennis of West Castick Farm, Trebartha, discovered three of his rams had been chased across the River Lynher and were trapped on the bank with various injuries — one of which was later put down.

It is thought the culprit was a dog off the lead.

Mr Dennis said: “The field the three young rams were in is what we call our ‘off field’ and it is right down the end of our lane. There is no public footpath through it and it has boundaries with two rivers and a fence. Withy Brook runs along one side of the field and joins the River Lynher on the other, it is not a likely dog walking spot.”

Mr Dennis said at around 10am he remembers hearing a dog barking down in the valley but had assumed it was one of the local dog owners who have ‘always been fine’ so didn’t think anymore of it.

He said the sheep were unlikely to have crossed the river by themselves ‘without a reason’. Two of the rams were found on the other side of the River Lynher with injuries and the third was found ‘hung up’ in brambles with extensive injuries to its legs. After being seen by a veterinarian the third was put down.

Mr Dennis said it was ‘not an ideal situation’ to have lost one of the rams as he had been keeping them back for next season. He said: “I had kept those three back specially as they were the best ones. I was planning to breed them or sell them next season.

“It was really annoying as well because the one that had to be put down was the better of the three.”

Mr Dennis said they were lucky to have found the animals when they did: “It was purely coincidence I went down to the field that day. We had a tree down and a man was coming out to tow it away with his tractor. My wife happened to be going past in her Land Rover and came to the yard to let me know the gate to the field was open. I went down to shut the gate and let the man know there were rams in the field and that’s when I saw them.”

He added that they were lucky to have not lost all three. He said: “The other two were traumatised but their injuries were ‘home repair’ jobs. If I hadn’t gone down when I did they would have died as well. Also if this had happened on the Sunday when the river swelled they would have surely drowned.”

Mr Dennis said he wants to raise awareness of the incident to help encourage more dog walkers to be vigilant of livestock when walking their dogs. He said: “There is a footpath that goes through our other field onto our neighbours land at East Castick Farm and forks off across a footbridge towards North Hill. We have had problems there before and I put a sign up asking walkers to keep dogs on a lead, the sign was up for about three months before it disappeared.

“I have to say about 90% of the walkers that use that footpath are good and keep their dogs on a lead but you do get the odd one come through who, when asked if they can put their dog on a lead, say things like ‘but my dog is fine with livestock’ or ‘don’t worry he won’t chase them’ — that isn’t really how it works!”

He added: “The worst thing is, and assuming this was someone with a dog off the lead, I was there in the yard all morning and the field is only 200 yards from the house. If there had been a problem with a dog getting out of control the owner could have come to me to tell me and I would have been able to sort it sooner.”

A police spokesperson has said they are investigating this incident. If anyone has any information or saw anything they are asked to contact the police via the non-emergency 101 line or email to [email protected] quoting the reference: CR/075415/17.