[Collie26]

Few months ago we had trading standards come and ask if she could look at the pigs, fair enough we knew we had all legal work and husbundry undercontrol. Upon seeing our tamworths she said 'they've got hair' WHAT!!!???!! Yes i know apparently we had been reported for not having a CPH which we had two years prior to that because we had to hold back on getting pigs because we had to fit new oil tank and boiler, plus whole load of everything else.

So if these people reporting took their noses out of my business the woman wouldnt have had a wasted journey, why dont they report a farm up the road who has cow byres left un mucket out until the weel before the beasts go back in!!?!

And if they are going to send someone atleast make sure they know what a bloody native pig looks like!!

[Sylvia]

I agree, it's maddening. I once knew a bloke who got himself a job with D.E.F.R.A. (then Min. of Ag.) to go around and lecture hard-bitten farmers on the best way to keep their cattle. He had to ask me to describe the different breeds

[Crofter]

What you have to remember is that there is a huge amount of jelousy around the lifestyle that most of us on here choose.  
We have folk all the time saying, "You're lucky you can afford this" and "This is an idyllic lifestyle", what they don't realise is that we have a mortgage too and struggle to pay it and that this "Idyll" is bl@@dy hard work.
We've had people report us for keeping pigs in poor conditions (they weren't our pigs, as we had none at the time),
call us affluent downshifters (fat chance) and tell us we're putting real farmers out of business!

In the end you just have to learn to smile and get on with it.....oh, and believe that "what you give, so shall you receive"!

Dave

[HappyHippy]

I completely agree with all the comments - been there myself 
My mum and dad sold the farmhouse here, along with 2 acres of ground. The people who bought it knew they were buying next to a farm (the name kinda gives it away) and we had pigs at the time when they viewed the house. But they bought the house and spent the next 2 years making our lives hell  We had visits from animal health, planning department (apparently they thought we needed pp to put pigs in our agricultural buildings ) we even had a visit from the benefit fraud squad - laughable as we didn't claim benefits 
I think lots of people like the idea of country living, but don't really know what it's like til they're actually there.
As Dave says - it'll come back and bite 'em on the bum ! I love Karma 
Karen 

[doganjo]

Just hang on in there.  I believe in Karma too but soemtiems it takes along time to come round.  It will eventually though!  I suffered from neighbours who banged ona  fence to make my kennel dogs bark then phoned the dog warden, also others who were friendlty with him turned their heads away whenever I went by - no idea why.  Karma came around when No 1's partner left because he was horrid to her tyeenage daughter - just draconian victorian ways -  he had to sell the 5 acres and lovely house we renovated to pay her off(I had sold it to them), and now is in a two room rented flat.  No 2 neighbours are trying to move back to England to be with a daughter - house on market for 10 months so far, not one viewer!  What goes around comes around.

[littlemisspiggy!]

we've had it aswell...
back in march someone reported me to the farmer i rent off saying that our pigs were in bad condition,feed and water stations were muddy and the pens were to small.........i wish people would come and get the full picture or atleast ask first before jumping to conclusions!i have to be careful as i rent not own the land and have a contract..it was no it all horse owners with fancy padddocks and money coming out of every orofis that reported us!!
what they actually didnt think about was the 3 weeks of continuos rain we had = mud!
they didnt see us wading in it every day 3 times a day cleaning out the feed trough and doing fresh water and bedding! and also we had to move some of the pigs to a smaller pen for a few days as there large pen was water logged...arrhhhhhh

i got a letter from land owner that reaklly upset me saying he was coming to look asd went on about welfare standars and so on..it really upset me and i felt sick thinking i could loose the field!but he came down and ive never heard anything else..my contract has just been renewed with no probs!! snotty know it all's should but out of what they dont know!

i do wish i could afford my own land though just for that extra security! apparently i should be able to with all the £££ i make
 from my 4 pigs!!!lol..

[Skirza]

Been there, done that....years ago we had a surprise visit from the RSPCA because a woman had reported us for cruelty. Our 'sin'? We had a field infront of the farmhouse that we used as the dairy cow nursery and the woman happened to see that one of the cows was calving. It wasn't having a problem, perfectly normal calving but she complained that it was cruel and that the cow should be indoors. RSPCA came, looked, agreed that the cows were perfectly healthy and happy and went away again but it leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

[Hilarysmum]

Also a member of the sinned against club BUT in the case of people reporting for poor conditions etc. just occasionally they are right and the animals (not any one here obviously) are in poor condition.   I once delayed reporting a case of negligence on a horse, feeling bad, arguing with myself as to the rights and wrongs, because I delayed, the animal deteriorated, as did its conditions, and when the RSPCA finally managed to "rescue" the horse was put down.

I know that 99 out of 100 cases are reported due to ignorance on the part of the reporter, or malice, or just plain jealousy, and it is both annoying and time consuming, as well as worrying when the authorities turn up.  But if it releases just one animal in that 1%  then perhaps its not quite so awful, and hard as it is just credit the person with trying to be nice, and leave the rest to fate or karma to sort out. 

[Skirza]

Also a member of the sinned against club BUT in the case of people reporting for poor conditions etc. just occasionally they are right and the animals (not any one here obviously) are in poor condition.   I once delayed reporting a case of negligence on a horse, feeling bad, arguing with myself as to the rights and wrongs, because I delayed, the animal deteriorated, as did its conditions, and when the RSPCA finally managed to "rescue" the horse was put down.

I know that 99 out of 100 cases are reported due to ignorance on the part of the reporter, or malice, or just plain jealousy, and it is both annoying and time consuming, as well as worrying when the authorities turn up.  But if it releases just one animal in that 1%  then perhaps its not quite so awful, and hard as it is just credit the person with trying to be nice, and leave the rest to fate or karma to sort out. 

Fair point  Still blooming annoying tho

[princesspiggy]

Few months ago we had trading standards come and ask if she could look at the pigs,

why was it trading standards? do u have a shop? or sell meat as a specific breed? Ie GOS pork? or do u mean Animal Health?
 

[manian]

trading standards look after the movement licences etc
so can have both check on you,....
Mx

[Collie26]

No we dont have a shop just sell occasionally to family and friends and i too dont know why it was trading standsrds

[robert waddell]

in scotland any movement licences are sent to trading standards       if it is movement within a county that is it         if it is one county to another county  you still send to your local trading standards office  they then in turn send to defra  simpels (there is talk that the trading standards is being done away with)               trading standards and enviromental health both work out the same office
trading standards still look at your movement book which doubles the movement licences

[suziequeue]

We had an objection to our planning permission because our neighbours thought that the size of the PVs (we had submitted an amendment to the initial pp to enlarge the size of the workshop roof in order to accommodate bigger PVs) was such that we might start running a business as we already had a "commercial vehicle" (large van that we store stuff in.... admittedly it is an ex-Citylink van and therefore bright yellow  ))

The planning officer popped round and was very happy with things but...... surely we don't need planning permission if we decided to run a business anyway!!! (not that we are planning to)

Bizarre 

[robert waddell]

yes you do it is change of use     the amount of livery yards that are used without the appropriate change of use (and due rates on it) are quite a fair number