The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Coximus on June 02, 2015, 09:32:05 pm
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I've been looking at buying in a few more sheep unrelated to my own (hebs) and found a nice set near me of 6 for sale, however the owner knows nothing of CPH / Animal health etc as they just kept them as "Pets" / Lawn mowers - now how can this be sorted?
Id like to buy them...... however obivously the current owner has no paperwork, and brought them of someone else, who from the sounds of it may or may not have paperwork - who apparently bred them and kept the lambs before selling on - Now this means they could be 3 steps removed from having AML1 / cph details to their names.
They do have single ear tags in - unsure as to which type yet as not had my hands on them.
Normally Id walk away but part of me worrys they will just be sold onto another person keeping them illigally so I'd like to take them into the fold (obviously isolated for a few months incase of disease)
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surely if they have eartags they would need to have their flock number etc on them? ???
know what you mean about taking them rather than letting someone else move them around without sorting out any issues.
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the number would correspond to where they were born though, not where they've been or come from, sounds like they've been at both places for 6 months or so - and in eahc case for whatever reason the @pets@ have turned out less petlike for the owner and need to move. |}
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You would be best to consult SAMU or the English/Welsh equivalent in the first instance. They have always been helpful to us, and if you consult them before you make the purchase then you will go in with your eyes wide open, and above board.
If people are going to keep sheep, whether they are pets or not, then they need to know the legal requirements, which are the same for all sheep. Don't worry about 'dropping them in it', just make sure you are all square.
I am assuming these are not registered Hebs - they would have to have their metal HSS tags so the Society could confirm their details if they were thought to be registered.
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We recently rescued some heb x soays and the one organisation that did us proud and enabled the recues to take place were animal health as they are the only ones that can circumvent any regulations ,so don't fear it has been done and can be done ,coximus pm me if you need more details !
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agree with verdifish
Animal Health get calls about situations like this all the time and they are very helpful
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I agree, I think animal health will be glad to have them in the system. One of the worst "welfare" cases I ever saw was "a few pigs for the freezer". OMG covered in lice and I mean covered, just for starters.
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Well done to you Coximus for being prepared to rescue them. Hope you get them sorted.
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In my experience Animal Health are more interested in getting livestock well cared for than dropping ignorant keepers in the mire. These sheep really do need to get in the system somehow otherwise they're a liability to the whole area in case of a disease outbreak.
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I will be contacting animal health - speaking with some neighbours, and most suggest tagging them as your own "new lambs" and keeping a detailed record of their previous history - apparently many of my neighbours (running 1000+ ewes) aquire 4-5 new ewes a year that escape and wonder into their farms..... They let animal health know, tag them up and keep details of their estimated age, condition etc on a spreadsheet.
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I will be contacting animal health - speaking with some neighbours, and most suggest tagging them as your own "new lambs" and keeping a detailed record of their previous history - apparently many of my neighbours (running 1000+ ewes) aquire 4-5 new ewes a year that escape and wonder into their farms..... They let animal health know, tag them up and keep details of their estimated age, condition etc on a spreadsheet.
Sorry you cannot retag them as your new lambs .... tags are always the birth holding .... or RED replacement tags with your number on if these are lost.
If they only have one tag they may well be slaughter tags (ie not legal.... as they should have been slaughtered before a year old ) ... make sure you work with animal health on this so you get everything done to make them legal ... good luck with this.
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sorry - thats what I meant, however many of the ewes that turn up, are missing tags, missing ID, or the tags are illegible - especially if the animals have been on the hills. - Apparently Animal health are more bothered about having these back "in the system" in these cases than the pedantics of getting the birth holding right - especially when it may not be known. As for a replacement tag - I dont see how that would work with an anonymous ewe of god knows how many years?
Some of these illigal sheep Im looking at have had lambs, which have obivously been untagged - as they have no holding details - this means these could be 3-4 years old, before , if ever, they come into the legitimate legal system.
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Coximus, thats exactly what i was told to do by Animal Health when i had a couple wander on last year.
As long as you have it written down (any details you can) it makes the sheep as traceable as possible.
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AND TO CONFIRM:
Animal health have confirmed that they will look into it, however in 90% of cases like this they get nowhere as people "lock uP" when they realise how bad what they have done is........ as such they prefer you to just issue a new tag in the new flcok - but want me to keep a spreadsheet on each of the 6 detailing everything I know about them. Keep them seperate from the other flock for a month or two....
Basically, Get them back into the system!
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:thumbsup: good to know they will now be looked after properly (and that AH are not all demons ;)
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Still amazes me how many people thing it is OK to have a 'pet' sheep or pig without any holding number or paperwork!
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it all sounds rather fishy and complicated to me. :dunce: