Esther Howie's business is 'hanging in balance' following dog attacks on her pedigree sheep

A Welsh farmer has said her business is 'devastated' and 'hanging in the balance' after a dog attack on her pedigree Jacob sheep.

Esther Howie, who farms in Anglesey, described her 'huge shock' when she found the flock badly injured in an attack that happened in January.

The Howie family moved to a holding near Rhosmeirch seven years ago and have invested a significant amount of money into improving and maintaining the land.

Both Esther and her husband Neil also work extra jobs to support their life-long dream of having a smallholding.







Esther already had a flock of pedigree Jacob sheep when they moved to the island and has since added a few Shetland sheep into the mix.

"I went up for my usual visit during my lunch hour at work and noticed that a mule ewe - my landlady’s adopted pet lamb that now lives with us - had fresh blood coming through her fleece,” she said.

Not sure what had happened but suspecting the sheep had been attacked, Esther checked the field: “It looked like one of the lambs had been attacked, but we’ve never had any experience of this to date.

“The gate into the field is locked and it is the only entrance. The field runs parallel to the A55 so there would be no reason for anyone to be in there," she said.

"I thought maybe the ewe had been caught in the hedge or fence somewhere and injured herself.

"I walked the full perimeter of the field checking for fleece in the hedges - knowing that this was going to be unlikely as we had only recently had them cut.”

About two thirds of her way around she found a large area of grass in the centre of the field that was strewn with clumps of fleece.

Esther added: “I contacted the police and was quite shaken that this could have happened in a seemingly safe and protected area. I had 11 ewes in that field - 4 of them had injuries - significant injuries that I couldn’t treat with a bit of spray alone.

“I realised I was going to have to bring these ewes back to the holding to shear the fleece where they had been attacked and properly clean and treat the wounds.

"It took me a whole day to deal with these four ewes - my husband had to leave his work for the afternoon to come and help me move them,” said Esther.

The decision was made to bring all of the ewes out of the field for the time being. It was not an easy decision for Esther to make as the fields at the main holding were waterlogged and not able to sustain the additional livestock.

By the time she arrived to pick up the ewes, they had been attacked again.

“We were absolutely horrified at what we found - the dog had obviously been back," she said, "One ewe had been attacked and left stranded on her back, another was severely injured and was hiding in the back of the field shelter.

“‘Bambi’ was our one and only pet lamb and the last of the offspring from the matriarch of my flock - Delores - who had passed away a few months earlier at the grand old age of 17.

"It was simply awful. There was nothing the vet could do for Bambi, her injuries were too severe and we had put her to sleep.”

Instead of returning to her day job, Esther’s time was now spent treating wounds, trying to contact the police and a visit to the knackers yard to have Bambi’s body disposed of.

Instead of returning to her farming day job, Esther’s time was spent treating wounds

There was little more that could be done at this stage. Mornings for Esther now had to start even earlier than normal to fit in cleaning wounds before work.

The sheep that had been left upside down also had significant injuries so there was a trip to the vet for her and daily antibiotic and pain killing injections to administer.

“Her injuries were severe but the vet and I decided we would try and give her a chance. She was still lively and eating which is always a good sign. Sadly though she didn’t make it,” said Esther.







The injuries had cut off the blood supply to the tissue in the ewes tail and backend and it started to turn necrotic. A week later it was agreed with the vet to have her put down as well.

“She wasn’t in lamb this year but I had chosen her for lambing next year as my second generation shetland -Jacob crossbreeds. Losing her was a great blow!” added Esther.

A quick back of the envelope calculation highlighted that between time taken away from work, vets fees, additional feed cost and medication, the incident had already cost over £1600 - and they weren’t nearly through it.

Esther said: “Besides the obvious pain and distress caused to the ewes themselves, I really can’t afford to treat anymore injuries or lose anymore of my stock.

"This has affected almost half my breeding stock and has knock-on consequences far beyond the loss of life itself.

“I have invested a huge amount into developing the smallholding and have finally been able to see a point where my dreams of developing the business here are becoming a reality - now this is all hanging in the balance,” she said.

Figures show that livestock worrying cost farmers £1.2 million last year as irresponsible owners continue to allow dogs to roam free in the countryside.