Over 20 lambs killed in “horrific” attack

A farmer is urging dog owners to keep an eye on their pets following an attack on his new lambs which saw over 20 dead and six injured.

Nigel Turner of Graig Farm, Cross Ash, was horrified when he and his son Matthew found 20 three-week-old lambs littered around his field and another six were alive, but with serious injuries.

Nigel had been working in an adjacent field on Monday (April 25), and had seen a large black dog in with his sheep and suddenly saw a lamb move in front of it.

He went to get his son Matthew and as they ran back across the field, they came across three lambs with their throats ripped out, “one was still alive” Nigel told the Beacon.

“As we went on over the brow of the field, we saw the dog tossing a lamb up in the air,” he added.

So they took steps to stop the dog before it could do any more damage.

“We had 300 ewes and lambs in a 27-acre field: the dog just went around and picked on what he could catch. In 51 years of farming here, we’ve never had a problem” added Nigel.

“I rang the police straight away and informed them,” he added.

“We went back out into the field to collect the evidence ready for the police and found more dead lambs in the longer grass and saw the ewes bleating for their lambs.

“Some of the mauled lambs had been dead a few days by the amount of decay so the dog had been out there before,” said Nigel.