North Wales Police hits back at ‘unjustified’ criticism over dog which was shot by farmer after killing six sheep

North Wales Police has hit back over criticism surrounding an incident in which a dog was shot by a farmer after killing six sheep.

The sheep dog first turned up at a farm near Gaerwen, Anglesey last Wednesday, where it attacked a number of livestock.

The farmer was able to capture the dog and put it in a trailer but by the time officers arrived it had escaped.

An appeal was later made by the force’s rural crime team in a bid to trace the dog’s owner without success.

The animal returned to the farm yesterday and killed two pregnant ewes and four lambs.

The farmer then killed the dog with a shotgun, which police said he was legally entitled to do.

However officers received a large amount of negative feedback after sharing a Facebook post about the incident.

The post was accompanied by a picture of the dog and a generic image of a farmer loading a shotgun, which was described as “insensitive” and “disgusting”.

Followers of the page questioned why the dog was released following the original incident instead of being sent to a rescue centre as the initial post did not mention it had actually escaped and was generally lacking in detail.

Rob Taylor, North Wales Police rural crime team manager, has now released a video, which you can see below, giving a fuller account of what took place.

He also described the criticism on social media as “unjustified”.

UPDATE ON DOG CASE

Sadly social media raised a number of inaccurate assumptions by a few people so it's relevant we clarify the true facts of the case..

Rob Taylor explains pic.twitter.com/QYz4F0Wunx

— NWP Rural Crime Team /Tîm Troseddau Cefn Gwlad HGC (@NWPRuralCrime) March 4, 2021

Outlining the actions taken by police after the first incident, he said: “Whilst our team were contacted, the nearest team member we had was over 60 minutes away so we asked the farmer if he could actually get a photograph of the dog so we could put an appeal out straightaway on social media, in a way that we could try and trace the owner.

“We also notified the farmer of the nearest dog warden. Also, the farmer had a scanner, and he was able to scan the dog and no chip was found so we had no idea where the dog came from.

“In the meantime, before one of my officers was able to attend, we were contacted by the farmer and told that the dog had unfortunately escaped from the livestock trailer.

“It could not be seen anywhere in the vicinity and inquiries continued and an appeal was put out there to try and get hold of the owner so we could stop a repeat of this offence.”

Describing the latest incident, he continued: “What happened yesterday was the dog did return and, on this occasion, brutalised a number of sheep, killing two pregnant ewes and also four lambs.

“The farmer had no choice whatsoever but to legally euthanize the dog with a shotgun and that’s what occurred.

“The farmer did not want that to happen and no farmer wants that to happen, but you have to protect livestock.

“We have subsequently been to the farm, and we’ve made numerous inquiries, and we now have actually traced the owner of the dog.

“We’re in the process of looking at ways of finalising this. It’s full of negative comments on there, which were unjustified, and a number of e-mails have gone to MPs.

“The true facts speak for themselves. We had no contact with the dog and the dog escaped to come back and kill again, which is what they do.

“Sadly, this is something that blights our farming community, day in, day out throughout the UK.

“When this course of action takes place It’s regrettable, but it is the only course of action that can take place to protect livestock and further stop them being killed.”