Incidents of livestock being chased, injured or killed by dogs

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023425

I note you seek access to the following information:

E- collar definition: A remote controlled device operated by the handler/ owner and which delivers an electrical impulse (an electric shock) of varying strength to the neck area.

Information Request for 2020 Data

Total number of incidents of sheep worrying (includes where a dog(s) has chased, injured or killed one or more sheep) with an owner or person responsible for the dog(s) present)

Total number of incidents of sheep worrying (includes where a dog(s) has chased, injured or killed one or more sheep) with an owner or person responsible for the dog(s) NOT present)

Number of incidents where a dog has caused physical injury to one or more sheep with an owner or person responsible for the dog(s) present

Number of incidents where a dog has caused physical injury to one or more sheep with an owner or person responsible for the dog(s) NOT present

Number of incidents where a dog has killed one or more sheep with an owner or person responsible for the dog(s) present

Number of incidents where a dog has killed one or more sheep with an owner or person responsible for the dog(s) NOT present

Number of incidents involving one or more dogs

Number of sheep worrying incidents where dog(s) involved were wearing an ecollar

Number of sheep worrying incidents where dog(s) involved were wearing an ecollar and shot.”

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

For your information, the only Home Office Offence code found that relates to the offence being asked for i.e. sheep worrying/attacks on sheep by dogs is: HO Code 111/05, which is 'Dogs worrying livestock on agricultural land' under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953.

However, it is a non-notifiable code, meaning that the police do not have to formally notify the Home Office of these offences, and therefore there is no obligation to record them on our systems.

In order to assist, the central statisticians conducted a search on our CRIS system for any record that uses this code, either in the allegation or confirmation positions, and no data was found. It is suspected that this is due to the code being non-notifiable.

In addition to this we also searched CRIS for any records from the year 2020 using
the property code 'cattle, sheep, elephants or other farm and zoo animals’. Four records were returned relating to sheep being killed/injured by dogs, although two of these related to one incident. I can therefore answer your above questions in relation to these three incidents:

There was 1 incident where the owner was present, and 2 incidents where the owner was not present (either not present completely or not in the immediate vicinity when the attack took place).

In 1 incident where the owner was not present, a sheep was physically injured, and in the other a sheep was killed.

In the incident where the owner was present, a sheep was killed.

I have considered a sheep to have been killed if it was killed directly as a result of the attack or if the sheep required euthanizing.

None of these incidents involved more than one dog.

There were no mentions of e-collars on any of the reports.