A FARMER is pleading for dog owners to keep their pets under control after a savage attack on her sheep.

A Siberian husky maimed one lamb and ripped the ear off another after it slipped its lead near Caroline Harriott’s farm in Sompting on Monday.

The first sheep was put down and the other was critically injured.

“It’s heartbreaking to get a phone call and rush to the field and find the aftermath of an attack,” Ms Harriott said.

“Sheep killed, others so badly injured they have to be put down, sheep in absolute terror after being chased round the fields, and sheep so stressed they lose their unborn lambs.

“Another attack was filmed by a member of the public and the image of our sheep being chased round and round the field and repeatedly pushed into fences by the attacking dog is locked in my mind.

“It was just another case too many of one of my sheep being so badly wounded it couldn’t be saved.”

Ms Harriott said more than 100 of her sheep had been killed in the last decade.

And she believed the problem was getting worse because of professional dog walkers.

“Professional dog walkers who walk large numbers of dogs at any one time have become a major problem,” the farmer said.

“Under the present law one person can take up to six dogs out.

“To my mind, there’s no way one person can keep six dogs under control in the countryside, even picking up the dog mess is practically impossible.

“I’m amazed how these businesses operate based on a business model of exercising dogs on private land without any sort of regulation, qualifications, or even permission from the landowners.

“The present laws simply don’t address the problems we are dealing with day in, day out.”

Ms Harriott said she had to remove a flock of rare sheep from the South Downs because of near-misses with dogs.

“We had so many worrying incidents that we have had to take the sheep off that land,” she said.

“It’s not just sheep that are being put at risk, one of the key conservation projects in the South Downs National Park is protecting the habitat of ground-nesting birds.

“There are now so many dogs running loose on the Downs every day that the birds don’t stand a chance if successfully raising chicks.

“We want people to enjoy the countryside.

“We simply ask that people keep dogs under control and firmly on the lead whenever there may be livestock about.”