A WARNING was this week issued to dog owners in West Devon, following a brutal attack which resulted in a sheep having to be shot.

Farmer Betty Palmer and her son Graham, who live at Sheepstor, have lost half a dozen sheep this year as a result of worrying by dogs.

Mrs Palmer said: 'For some reason it seems to be worse than ever this year. People just don't seem to be taking care and it's just appalling what some of the sheep have gone through.'

Mrs Palmer said her son had to shoot a sheep at Ditsworthy Warren a couple of weeks ago — last week, another one was destroyed as a result of a dog attack.

'This one's wounds were absolutely horrendous, most of its back leg was gone. I think by the look of it, it happened about 48 hours before. The trouble is when they're like that they go down against a wall or try and hide away so you don't see it straight away — this one was horrifying,' she said.

Mrs Palmer said the sheep worrying incidents have been reported to the police and warned that dogs witnessed attacking sheep were at risk of being shot.

PC Bob Bone, beat manager for the area, said: 'This is a problem that crops up at this time of the year, every year. We would ask the public to be extra careful when walking their dogs and to exercise caution.

'We will deal with complaints as and when they come in and if it is substantiated that a dog is seriously out of control, we will deal with it.'

South West NFU spokesman Ian Johnson said: 'Sheep worrying is a perennial problem. Dogs, however well trained, do have a tendency to chase anything that runs away, even if it's only in play and of course the sheep don't know that.'

Mr Johnson said even if dogs do not attack sheep, chasing them can cause the animals to abort or even huddle together closely enough to cause suffocation danger.

Tavistock NFU chairman Barbara Anning said this sort of incident was very upsetting and appealed to dog owners to keep their dogs under control, particularly now, during the lambing season.

She also warned members of the public not to pick up young lambs on the moor.

Mrs Anning said: 'People see lambs on their own and think they've been abandoned — but they haven't, the ewes know exactly where they are.

'The ewe will leave a lamb asleep and go off and feed, which they have to do to keep the milk up. If anyone picks the lamb up, it gets a human smell on it and sometimes the ewe won't have it back.'