Electric dog-collars ban would be a welfare disaster, argue farmers
The Sunday Telegraph4 Sep 2022By Hayley Dixon SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
BANNING electric dog collars will lead to “an unmitigated animal welfare disaster”, a farmers’ union has warned the Government.
More than 200 sheep farmers from across England say they are seeing an increasing number of “distressing and harrowing” dog attacks, and the ban on the training devices due to come into effect this year is “utterly irresponsible”.
In a letter to Boris and Carrie Johnson, who both campaigned in favour of a ban on e-collars when it was first announced in 2018, they warn that the plans are “misguided in the extreme”.
The letter, led by the National Sheep Association, warns that in Wales, where a ban is already in place, there has been an increase both in attacks on sheep and the number of dogs shot by farmers.
Phil Stocker, chief executive of the NSA, said: “Farmers are fed up with the trauma of finding dead and injured sheep and in some cases telling people that they have had to shoot their dogs.
“The solution starts with owners keeping their dogs on leads. “But dogs with strong prey instincts must also be trained and it would be madness to ban an effective and proven way of training them to be wary of sheep.
“We are in favour of regulation to minimise any risk of misuse, but a blanket ban on e-collar training would be misguided in the extreme.”
But last night officials insisted that the ban was being put in place to protect dogs from abuse. Announcing the proposed ban in 2018, Michael Gove, then environment secretary, backed “positive reward training methods”.
But the letter says the idea of training a dog with biscuits is “naïve nonsense”.
Farmers in Wales, including BBC star Gareth Wyn Jones, wrote to the Welsh Parliament in June calling on ministers to reverse their decade-long ban on the collars, which deliver a small electric shock. Referencing their complaints, the English farmers point out the Welsh “suffer four times more attacks and have to shoot many more dogs”.
A Defra spokesman said: “The Government’s proposed ban on hand-operated electric shock collars will protect dogs from these harmful devices which can be all too easily open to abuse.”
Read the article at https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-sunday-telegraph/20220904/281844352460397