Livestock crime
Livestock animals are domesticated animals raised on farms for food, materials, or to provide labour.
There are two types of livestock crimes:
- livestock worrying. This is where a dog attacks or chases livestock causing injury or suffering
- livestock theft
Livestock worrying
Livestock worrying is a criminal offence. ‘Worrying’ is where a dog attacks or chases livestock causing injury or suffering.
This isn’t just a threat to a farmer or land owner’s livelihood, it’s also a dangerous situation for the animals involved, and could lead to more risk if the animals get onto the road.
A farmer is allowed to kill the dog if it’s worrying their livestock.
Always keep your dog under control around other animals and if you see a dog on the loose worrying animals, call 999.
Livestock theft
Grazing animals can be an easy target especially in remote rural locations.
You should try and do the following:
- check on your animal(s) regularly
- report any suspicious vehicles
- improve security around the area where the animal(s) graze
- make it possible to identify your animals if they're stolen. Ear tags, horn brands, freeze marking, hoof branding, tattoos and microchips can all help identify your animal(s) if they’re stolen
- where possible, you could consider joining Farm Watch or Rural Watch schemes. These are only available in certain areas.
If you own the following livestock, you need to:
- in the case of cattle (cattle, bison or buffalo) you will need to report the loss or theft of an animal to the British Cattle Movement Service within seven days. Please try to have your livestock identification information available when reporting
- apply for a horse passport. This is is a legal requirement. You can find out how to apply for a horse passport on gov.uk
If your livestock is being stolen right now, call 999. If it's already happened, you can report it online.