[KirinChris]

Not ours… a neighbour.

There’s been a dead sheep in their field for several days. We don’t know them and there are only people at the house occasionally… (we did leave a card when we arrived last year but they haven’t responded).

I know we’re the city folk just moved in and I don’t want to be the one not understanding what is going on so, you tell me…

a) Is it normal not to check on sheep for so long? I mean maybe they looked in the field but wouldn’t you check the far corners for any ill or distressed animals, let alone dead ones. The other sheep are avoiding the area, and it is getting pretty whiffy. Our horses are not too keen either.

b) They are in a field which had kale but is now down to bare stalks and pretty horrible. There are feeders but what seems to happen is they occasionally chuck a large bale of hay in the field which not all the sheep can reach. There’s a lot of pushing and shoving. Shouldn’t you distribute the feed a bit?

And finally any suggestions on what to do? We have gone around to the house but nobody is there.

[Glencairn]

A gentleman should always prepare for situations such as these.

Ensure you are dressed in suitable attire, riding britches and a smart jacket as a minimum, he may only be wearing a set of Dickie's overalls and a pair of Dunlop landmasters, but he will respect you for having made the effort.

When you meet the farmer speak loudly so as you're sure to get his attention, he may be hard of hearing due to years of operating machinery.

He needs to appreciate the benefits of a private education and will be fascinating by your deliberate pronunciation.

It may well be that he will have been educated at a local comprehensive so may not understand your vernacular.

Once you have established his respect in this way it will then be easy to raise the subject of the smell of his dead sheep upsetting your horse.

Toodle pip.

[landroverroy]

A gentleman should always prepare for situations such as these.

Ensure you are dressed in suitable attire, riding britches and a smart jacket as a minimum, he may only be wearing a set of Dickie's overalls and a pair of Dunlop landmasters, but he will respect you for having made the effort.

When you meet the farmer speak loudly so as you're sure to get his attention, he may be hard of hearing due to years of operating machinery.

He needs to appreciate the benefits of a private education and will be fascinating by your deliberate pronunciation.

It may well be that he will have been educated at a local comprehensive so may not understand your vernacular.

Once you have established his respect in this way it will then be easy to raise the subject of the smell of his dead sheep upsetting your horse.

Toodle pip.

Very droll Glencairn.


However, It could be a week or 2 before the neighbours appear again, by which time KirinChris will have got fed up of dressing up and poncing round, and the sheep will be stinking to high heaven.


To be more serious - it worries me that these sheep appear to receive very little attention. Do they even have water now that they are feeding on dry hay?
Your best bet, if the body is still there on Monday, is to report the matter to trading standards who will find out who owns them and advise the owners accordingly.


DO NOT report to the rspca who will not care a bit about the sheep and their only aim will be to prosecute and make money out of the situation. In fact they won't even care if more sheep die, as the more that die the more publicity they can get from it.

[Fleecewife]

@KirinChris , no it's not fine for a sheep or any other animal to be left lying dead. Animal owners have a duty to check on their animals daily, to ensure they have adequate food and water and to deal with sick animals by providing appropriate care or euthanising them. Deadstock must be removed by a licensed knacker, which is a company which collects fallen stock and incinerates it (for a fee) It is illegal to bury dead farm animals, because of the risk of disease spread. Anything which encourages wild birds to come into contact with each other in the current Bird Flu outbreak is a bad thing.  Other diseases can be spread this way, hence the laws.
What your neighbour is doing is hoping to save himself the fee by leaving the animal to be eaten by wildlife such as foxes and birds of prey. This is something that our neighbour used to do; he is now not allowed to keep livestock on pain of prison.  In Scotland, the SSPCA will prosecute this sort of behaviour. However, as you have already worked out, you will not be Mr popular if you start dobbing in your neighbours.  You have to take an ethical decision as to whether to report the incident to Trading Standards, or work out a crafty way to get someone else such as a vet to do the reporting  .

Please ignore the comments from Glencairn - inappropriate!

[Buttermilk]

A person who had a dead sheep in a field on a local arable farm, left the sheep in the field and it was collected over a week later by the fallen stock wagon.  The owner of the sheep lives over 20 miles away.

Obviously this is not ideal but it does happen.

[Anke]

It will stop smelling soon... it does happen and yes the farmer is meant to get it collected, but sometimes the knacker lorry doesn't come for quite a few days... even if you phoned and asked for collection (and even paid for it...). Not much you (as the farmer or the nosy neighbour can do). Happened to us in the August heatwave last summer when we were away on a rare few days off the holding and our farm sitter had phoned up for collection but they only turned up once I phoned when we got back... by which time it was very bad.


TBH, I would not get involved and would not report to anyone. Just one of those things... deadstock (wild or farm) does come with living in the countryside.

[Penninehillbilly]

Personally, if the stink is getting to you, (I can stand a lot of smells, but that stink actually makes me ill, I can smell something is dead from yards off, husband can't) I would find a big sheet of plastic, don waterproofs, rubber gloves, roll body onto plastic and drag it much nearer their farm. If you do this though, obviously wash waterproofs with disinfectant.

[Fleecewife]

Personally, if the stink is getting to you, (I can stand a lot of smells, but that stink actually makes me ill, I can smell something is dead from yards off, husband can't) I would find a big sheet of plastic, don waterproofs, rubber gloves, roll body onto plastic and drag it much nearer their farm. If you do this though, obviously wash waterproofs with disinfectant.

One of my dogs rolled in something dead a few days ago immediately after his bath of course.  To me the stink of decomp is so vile I don't want to be near the poor chap.  Hubby can't smell it and when I beg for him to wash the dog again he just says 'He was bathed just a few days ago'   
Yes, you can either take it or you can't.

[Fleecewife]

It will stop smelling soon... it does happen and yes the farmer is meant to get it collected, but sometimes the knacker lorry doesn't come for quite a few days... even if you phoned and asked for collection (and even paid for it...). Not much you (as the farmer or the nosy neighbour can do). Happened to us in the August heatwave last summer when we were away on a rare few days off the holding and our farm sitter had phoned up for collection but they only turned up once I phoned when we got back... by which time it was very bad.


TBH, I would not get involved and would not report to anyone. Just one of those things... deadstock (wild or farm) does come with living in the countryside.

I think it's as much the fact of lack of care of his neighbour's flock that is bothering @KirinChris as it is the corpse lying out. If there is such a lack of care that the owner hasn't noticed that a sheep has died it is of concern, nothing to do with townies v rural, although I suspect it will take much more evidence to show there's a real problem.  The authorities allow a big leeway for mistakes and unusual circumstances before they do something. It could be that the farmer is ill, has a major problem, has died, is an alcoholic, has gone broke, doesn't care or has so much other land he's overworked and overstretched.  Not our place to know but he/she might need help?

[KirinChris]

Indeed @Fleecewife hits the nail on the head. It’s not a large field and wouldn’t take much time to check, but we’ve never actually seen anyone in it over a period of months, and we spend a lot of time in the adjacent field. If they were aware of it - given it is quite close to our boundary - you’d think they might mention it.

Having said that we can smell the thing from our house so it isn’t pleasant. I’m just glad it is winter !

@Glencairn Don’t worry I have blended in perfectly to northern life. My opera hat was squashed in the move so I wear it as a flat cap, and I tell the locals my smooth collie is a giant whippet, by gum. I don’t think anyone has noticed.

[Anke]

Well you say in yout top post that they have hay to feed, so obviously someone is checking every so often.


Since we moved out from the city (nearly 20 years ago now...) we have used the following: I deal with whatever happens on my land (or land I rent), and do not try and tell others what to do on theirs. It works, even if I sometimes think that my neighbours are not doing a great job... and I could do it so much better (but probably not).

[Penninehillbilly]

It will stop smelling soon... it does happen and yes the farmer is meant to get it collected, but sometimes the knacker lorry doesn't come for quite a few days... even if you phoned and asked for collection (and even paid for it...). Not much you (as the farmer or the nosy neighbour can do). Happened to us in the August heatwave last summer when we were away on a rare few days off the holding and our farm sitter had phoned up for collection but they only turned up once I phoned when we got back... by which time it was very bad.


TBH, I would not get involved and would not report to anyone. Just one of those things... deadstock (wild or farm) does come with living in the countryside.

I think it's as much the fact of lack of care of his neighbour's flock that is bothering @KirinChris as it is the corpse lying out. If there is such a lack of care that the owner hasn't noticed that a sheep has died it is of concern, nothing to do with townies v rural, although I suspect it will take much more evidence to show there's a real problem.  The authorities allow a big leeway for mistakes and unusual circumstances before they do something. It could be that the farmer is ill, has a major problem, has died, is an alcoholic, has gone broke, doesn't care or has so much other land he's overworked and overstretched.  Not our place to know but he/she might need help?

TBH, last year I was quite ill, get bad headaches, cant keep anything down etc, can hardly do anything. Husband counted sheep for me, one extra, tenants. He came over to get it out. when I finally checked sheep in daylight, one missing, but 2 over in tenamts field, so one of mine missing I walked round, yes I could smell it, found the remains in the rushes, too late to even bother moving it. Mainly eaten. I felt bad, but can't blame husband, he didn't know the difference between my sheep and tenants.
So maybe someone else is supposed to be checking them? But whoever, if its only one field, you would think they could do a count when feeding? I do a headcount every evening.

[chrismahon]

We had a similar problem here last month. One of our neighbours' pigs was struggling to stand in a field behind the house so we sent the Manager a text which he politely thanked us for. Four hours later one of the farm hands turned up, watched it for a while and walked off. It died overnight and the carcass was collected a few days later and taken away in a black van. I'd have expected a vet to have been there immediately, but the agricultural college farm is being run as a business, so perhaps a vet is over-budget for one pig?


Now he knows absolutely nothing about chickens, so I'd be pretty annoyed if he came over to comment on our management of them. Conversely we know absolutely nothing about pigs...............

[Nelson International]

I've seen old guys spot a light case of fly strike in a sheep they've never seen from a distance of two fields, so maybe there's more attention/experience going on then you realise.

That said, I have a troublesome neighbour, and it is tricky to know how to proceed when you are likely to be their neighbours forever. My usual trick is to be relentlessly cheery as I ask him to clean up himself or to moan to his brother in law who is also impacted by his bad behaviour. If you can't talk directly to the owners, can you ask around and find number for them? You definitely shouldn't have to deal with a dead sheep you can smell from the house.

[suzi]

I’ve not read all the comments.
Sorry if I’m repeating.

I had an issues this month. A ram was killed by another ram. Nasty, but it happens.
Called fallen stock (not used him before as it’s my first dead in a new area).
He assured me he’d come out in the next couple of days. He turned up with no notice (it was agreed that he would call with 30 mins notice as I don’t live on the holding).
I had a call to say he was in the gate way. I throw my kids in the car and grab cash out to find him gone.
He assured me that he would collect asap that week. No issue the sheep was in a stable covered up. Not ideal but if he can’t get to me he can’t get to me.
This was 2 weeks ago! I found another fallen stock man who came the following day. He told me by law as livestock owners we have 24 hours to report the death for collection. The fallen stock has 48 hours to collect. So 3 days by law to have the fallen stock gone!
Rarely checking is neglect. There’s no other way to put that.
Sone sheep are fine on stalks. My neighbours romneys are on stalks and looking fantastic on it.

I think I’d be tempted to call trading standards if your that worried.