Pregnant ewes put down after dog attack

Eight pregnant ewes have been put down after a dog attack left them with severe injuries, a farmer said.

Beth Morris, from Chirbury, Shropshire, was renting a field near Shawbury when a dog attacked 10 ewes, leaving them badly hurt.

The sheep which were put down were all pregnant with twins

"With the eight ewes that we have lost, we have lost 24 lives because of the unborn lambs," Morris said.

Warning: This article contains a graphic image which some people may find upsetting.

In her experience, her sheep spent more time around the edge of the field as it was very muddy, due to it normally being a turnip field.

"I could tell something was wrong straight away because there was a lot of wool down in the one corner of the field," Morris said.

"I began to walk through the ewes and then saw all of the carnage.

"The ewes weren't moving from us, they usually get up and walk away, but some physically couldn't."

The attack came as the latest figures from NFU Mutual showed that, across the country, farm animals worth about £1.95m have been severely injured or killed by dogs in 2025, a rise of a tenth from the year before.

The Midlands was the worst-hit region based on cost, with such attacks costing an estimated £438,000.

In Morris' case, the sheep attacked were left with injuries to their bones, tendons and muscles.

She said she had "never seen injuries like it".

"I picked up the injured sheep, the ones that we could, and brought them home straight away so they could see our local vet," Morris said.

"We brought 10 back but our biggest issue is all of those ewes that were there were in lamb, and they were all carrying two lambs each.

"Even though physically they may not look affected, they may now, through stress, abort their unborn lambs."

This was the first time a dog attack had happened to her and she said nobody had reported it to the police.

Morris said, in the corner of the field, she could see muddy footprints from her sheep as well as those of a "big dog" and from a person.

"This was definitely a dog that was out of control for a long time, and that's the upsetting part," she said.

"Someone was either there and saw what it was doing and eventually stopped it or, if the dog did eventually get bored and went home, that dog is going to be absolutely plastered in mud and blood.

"Our sheep were absolutely plastered in mud because they had been held down in the mud on their back."

The lambing season got under way this month, with March and April the peak times.

Morris said the attack would hit her financially for "the rest of the year".

"This is going to go on for a while because we don't know how many lambs we are going to lose," she added.

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