[Creagan]

Was walking through an empty field today when my dog came across a rotting sheep carcass which had been recently hidden under a sheet of old corrugated iron. Absolutely yucky. Managed to get the dog away before she ate too much of it.
I was under the impression that you had to deal with fallen stock responsibly, either having it removed by the knackerman or dig a proper pit.
Should I be reporting this, and if so, who to?

[DavidandCollette]

The carcass soul go to the  knackerman, not left burned out buried. You should contact environmental health

[Porterlauren]

"Quickly ring the Feds" 

[Foobar]

Your local Trading Standards' Animal Health dept.

[moony]

You should by rights get them taken away. But at £20 a piece to be removed i'm sure not every single one does. I know around us the river seems to catch a few. I would also argue that on our hill land its less hygenic to move it a mile across the land than leave it as nature intended for scavengers to consume. We have also had them sat under sheets for a week waiting for the knacker man to call in. Honestly it gets my back right up when people take it upon themselves to report things like that. Fair enough if there is a large pile but not just for one. It might well be the farmer doesn't want to bring it near the yard while he is lambing, or a million other reasons.

[harmony]

I know out on the fell they maybe missed but leaving them where people's dogs can access them is disgusting and fairly unpleasant for the dog owner too.


Leaving them to rot on the side of paths and in watercourses where everyone else can see them is foul. Not a nice thought for those whose water may come from these places either.


If someone left a dead horse or a cow rotting there would be a real outcry but for some reason sheep seem to be acceptable and some people are regular offenders.

[Foobar]

Is it possible that the body had been placed somewhere for ease of access by the knackerman - ie by a gate to a road etc.  Sounds like it was covered over deliberately, maybe for collection later.  You have to make your own judgement Creagan


If ppl insist on leaving bodies lying around then at least put them out of access of the public. Really it's just feeding the foxes and crows and increasing the fly population though, so you (and your neighbours) just end up spending more on Crovect and the like....

[Creagan]

Well the carcass is in a field, not exactly a public footpath, but it happens to be on my own boundary and as yet there is no fence, hence how the dog had access. It's not beside a gate or anything, and it's been lying long enough to rot and is in a number of pieces.
It's a small hollow in the ground with the remnants of a shed nearby, somebody has simply taken the quickest and easiest option to 'hide' the carcass, by dragging a sheet of tin over the top of it. The man actually owns a digger so I see no excuse.

Now that I think about it, I remember talking to someone who works for my neighbour, I was asking about foxes (I plan to keep geese, myself) and this guy said the foxes were a problem, you had to use loads of sheepdip on the bodies of dead sheep to hide the smell otherwise the foxes would get into them.

[Thyme]

It's not legal to bury them where I am (mid-Wales) - they have to go to fallen stock, or I believe the local hunt is ok too.  There was a special permission given to bury them a couple of years ago after the big snow when so many died, but not now.

My own feeling is if it's in a remote spot it's pretty understandable to leave it, especially as people feed kites around here (with official blessing).  But if it's bordering a neighbour or a footpath it should be collected.  My neighbour had one drop just the other side of the fence from my chickens the other day.  I hopped on the quad to let him know and he collected it a few hours later, all good.

[Yeoman]

I'd just suggest doing a quick assessment of the costs vs benefits of dumping your neighbour in the smelly brown stuff.

[Me]

Clearly you have to use your own judgement, in general I would say phoning officials to get neighbours in trouble is a bad plan.

Is it an option for you to knock on the door and ask if he knew there was a dead sheep there and that it was starting to smell a bit? (Nicely). More likely to end up with a good response maybe? Or have neighbourly relations between you already deteriorated past this point?

Also I think you need to fence your dog in rather than expect the farmer to fence him out and keep off private land (location dependant)

[Marches Farmer]

If a sheep isn't discovered and/or moved for several days it may well, depending on the time of year and how many foxes and badgers are in the area, have decomposed or been torn into pieces.  Fallen stock collection can sometimes be unavoidably delayed because of the time and effort it can take to collect and transport the remains at this time of year, when a farmer may well be right in the middle of working a 16-hour day to keep his newborn lambs and calves alive.

[Foobar]

Ahh well yes, if its a neighbour then you'd best off starting with the polite method .

Some people are very lazy though, a law is a law, and it doesn't really take much to plonk it in a barrel or something for the time being.  People shouldn't be afraid of "dobing" other folk in if they are doing wrong, I think as a nation we have become rather spineless .  (I will stop typing now before I start to rant!!)

Also, I'm sure trading standards can be smart about it so that your name is never brought into the frame.  They could do a spot check on him, and if they go looking for bones they will probably find some if he makes a habit of leaving bodies to rot.

[harmony]

Yes, good  relations with your neighbour are important and yes, start there.


I take all the points about time, waiting for collection, busy lambing etc, etc but we could all use those.

[Womble]

So, when people leave fallen stock to rot, what do they do about their flock records? Won't DEFRA be looking for a proper record of the death and correct disposal?