Terrified by shouting, angry farmer .. what to do next?

ceridwen

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

I understand this can't have been pleasant for you, and yes the farmer was out of order threatening you, but in all fairness, your dog should have been on a lead, so technically, yes, the farmer could have shot your dog if he thought it was chasing his livestock (and to be fair if all you see is cattle running followed by a woman walking her dog off-leash then yeah, I can see why he would be concerned).

I'm in no way condoning his behavior, but technically a lot of what he said was correct.

...and his behaviour is not particular to large male farmers. I am not in any of these categories - I'm small/female and not a farmer - but my temper in his position would have been VERY much worse than his actually. I dont often lose my temper - but that WOULD have been one of the occasions where people would have found out about it and never forgotten...<cough>:o. So the fact that he was large and male is irrelevant - with both of us being small/female/greyhaired.

ceridwen

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I have a feeling that this discussion divides between those who live (or have lived) in the country and those that think the country's main function is as a place to walk their dogs.

Not quite - I'm an urbanite - and I recognise the farmers rights here.:D

Even some of us urbanites have a great respect for Nature and landowners/farmers rights etc.

Rikki

I thought dogs had to be on leads when walking through field with cattle in.

paddy's_mum

Thanks for responses so far and just to clarify ..

The two dogs with me today were a working bred English Springer Spaniel and a farm bred Border Collie. Both are extremely well behaved, obedient and used to passing (and ignoring!) farm livestock. A couple of my friends sometimes borrow the dogs for days out, so biddable are they.

They were off lead but closely at heel. I frequently walk a mile or more with them under this level of control with no problem. They are not of the breeds popularly supposed to be a threat to livestock.

I prefer not to have dogs effectively tied to me when passing cattle as my experience is that cattle ignore people but try to 'see off' dogs and I'd rather my dogs were free to run away and escape, leaving me out of the line of attack, as it were.

I come from a farming family and if my dogs had indeed shown any sign whatever of hassling livestock, I would have been distraught on my own account. Whether or not anyone had seen me would have been totally irrelevent.

I'd also add that the farmer must have x-ray vision to be on the other side yet be able to see straight through a 20 foot high sea bank and accuse my dogs of chasing his cattle. Now that I'm calming down a bit, I also realise that when he was yelling at me, he could not possibly have seen his stock but he followed me along the bank, while still spluttering that he'd be pleased to have the Police come along. He subsequently got back in his truck and drove off, still not having bothered to go along and physically check the wellbeing of his stock. How much of his conduct is genuine concern for his animals and how much is him having an opportunity to play the big man?

I'm half reluctant to involve the Police as it could be viewed as a storm in a teacup and perhaps a waste of Police resources but on the other hand, I was genuinely very frightened. I wouldn't want him to be able to bully others as he has me. I don't lack physical courage but a slender, approaching 60 year old is no match for a burly man intent on shouting me down.

Perhaps a polite word from the Police would make the farmer think twice in the future and use a less heavy handed, aggressive approach.

Errata

The OP was in the wrong by having the dogs loose. The farmer was in the wrong for suggsting he might want to shoot the OP. Score = 1 - 1
The OP shoud be very, very grateful the cattle 'skittered' away from her instead of 'skittering' all over her.

The_Banker_5

I think you should have more sense taking your dogs near cattle.;)


The cattle arent aware that your dogs are well behaved.;)


If you must walk your dogs near cattle then get them on a lead next time.


http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/109293#

poet123

Tbh regardless of your likes re whether the dogs are on/off a lead, the fact remains that the country code does dictate that in these circumstances dogs should be on a lead. Lots of us may rather not confirm to various "constraints" but we do, because they are generally accepted to be for the best.

That said, his threatening tones were unacceptable, particularly his threat towards your person. So, I would report him, whilst accepting and acknowledging your part in the issue when you do so. It will do him no harm to have it pointed out to him that guns are lethal weapons, and talk of using one is not to be taken lightly, and is not taken lightly by the police. Mark his card, and keep on walking there, but with the dogs on a lead.

Frugalista

ceridwen wrote: »

Ummmm......<cough> can I ask what type of dogs you have please?

- as in peoples perceptions of the level of risk that dogs constitute does depend a lot on what breed they are - due to the very different temperaments different breeds have.

As in I'm wondering if they are a breed that is well-known as being friendly/outright "cowards"/etc - or a breed that is equally well-known as being aggressive to people/chase animals/etc??

Also - I'm a bit puzzled as to how dogs can be "off lead" AND "under close control". Were they under close control and on the lead? OR were they off lead. I'm a bit confused as to whether they were or werent on their leads.

ceridwen - I really don't think it makes any difference what breed of dogs they are. They startled the cattle before the farmer saw them - and as cattle don't have any pre-concieved, media-fed pre-conceptions about any particular breed - I really don't see how that would have any bearing at all. The farmer reacted to his animals being startled by dogs running loose when they really should have been on a lead - end of.

OP, I totally agree that the farmer over-reacted and should not have intimidated you the way he did - and for that alone he should be reported.

FWIW, I live in a very rural area and only a few months ago had a policewoman call at my home to see if any of my dogs had been loose off my property (they hadn't). She was accompanied by an elderly farmer who was nearly in tears when he told me that he and a neighbouring farmer had had a total of 21 sheep killed by dogs the previous evening :eek:
And, apparently, as they were loading the bodies into a trailer a whole bunch of walkers came by with 3 loose dogs accompanying them. A week later I also had to ask walkers to put their dogs on leads as there was stock in the field (and two (understandably) very twitchy farmers nearby).

It may be that the farmer in question had had troubles in the past with loose dogs (and I'm not excusing his behaviour) - but people always say "Oh, the dog/s won't trouble the stock", etc,etc. Fact is, when there is stock in the field you should always keep your dog on a lead.

ceridwen

I'm sorry - but I have to say I agree its maybe 1:1 here. I'm afraid the Police wouldnt help here - as they are probably up to their collective necks and beyond in dealing with burglaries/rape/other assorted crimes and I feel a case of someone being a bit frightened (when their dogs were off lead after all) wouldnt rate at all highly on their list of priorities.

Please O.P. take this as coming from another small/greyhaired/middle-aged woman - I think this fact is irrelevant to the discussion.

I do understand - I do sympathise - but I do see the farmers point.

Least said soonest mended methinks. Time to put this down to experience - and keep the dogs on the lead near livestock in future.

sdooley

Neither of those breeds is known as agressive, true, but springers are bouncy and excitable and collies can yap a bit.

What I don't understand is, the dogs did (belatedly) scare off the cattle, but you think they didn't hassle them. This seems quite a fine distinction - though you were there at the time so can probably say better than us. The farmer was not there at the time the dogs engaged with the cattle so probably thought the worst, when he saw cattle going away from you (at speed?).

I believe the advice is to have dogs on a lead but if cattle approach, release the dogs. The best approach is probably to find a route that doesn't have any livestock with young, then let your dogs loose.

A polite word from the police would probably just grow the farmer's chip on his shoulder.