'I cried my eyes out' - Farmer's heartbreak after dogs kill six sheep

Meg Atkins was horrified to hear that her boyfriend had discovered dogs running off the lead in one of her flock's grazing fields in Little Witchingham, near Reepham.

Five lambs and a ewe were found dead with bite wounds, while another two lambs were injured and traumatised, she said.

Meg Atkins' sheep, which are still traumatised after being attacked by pet dogs (Image: Archant 2022)

Miss Atkins, 25, works as a stockwoman at a livestock business in Foxley, but pours all her spare time and money into her own Megfield Livestock venture, which also includes a commercial cattle herd.

She said the financial cost would be more than £2,500, including the veterinary bills and the cost of disposing of dead animals including two pedigree blue Texel lambs.

But she said the main impact is the emotional strain of losing her much-loved animals - and looking after survivors which now act very differently around her and her trainee sheepdog.

"I maintain these animals all year round, I lamb on my own alongside my full-time job and then you get something like this," she said.

"All that time you put into lambing, all the money you pay for renting sheds and grazing... when I came back that night I was so angry, I just stood here and cried my eyes out. It is a kick in the guts.

"This has cost me a lot of money, but that is not the point. It is more about how my sheep are with me now - I can see in their behaviour that they are still stressed and worried.

"Usually they will be all around me, but now they don't want to know me at all.

"Also, I am training my sheepdog, so I have been keeping her around them so they get used to her. But now I dare not even have her out."

Miss Atkins said she has had problems with her mental health, which is one of the reasons she works with animals.

"When I have a stressful day I come back in the evening and go around my sheep or my cows, it is a comfort," she said.

"This is where I am happiest. But I don't come from a rich background, so I have to have a full-time job to be able to run this and to keep building it up, so something like this destroys you.

"But people think they are just sheep. They don't realise that when they are yours you put in all your time, and all your money to them. It is like they are a part of me."

Livestock farmer Meg Atkins with her sheepdog Luna, whose sheep were attacked by pet dogs running loose on grazing land at Little Witchingham (Image: Archant 2022)

Miss Atkins said she did not know how the dogs got into the field, which has no public footpaths alongside it and is surrounded by a four-foot stock fence - leaving the sheep with no way of escaping.

She urged all dog owners to keep their pets on leads around farm animals, and to take responsibility for the safety of livestock in the countryside.

"I understand people want to let their dogs off the lead," she said. "I've got dogs, I know they can misbehave. No dog is perfect, and when they are near livestock their instinct will come out.

"You cannot help that. But when they get in a muddle, you need to think: 'What do I have to do now? I've got to find who owns the field or find someone who can get the dog out'. Just be responsible, that is all you have to do.

"There are so many cases of this all the time. How far does it have to go before people start to listen?

"To be fair, 99pc of people are good as gold, and have their dogs on a lead. But you always get some people who think they know best, that their dog won't do it."

The dogs were caught by the police, and officers are still investigating the incident, which happened at about 3.30pm on May 21.

Witnesses or anyone with information should call Norfolk police on 101, quoting investigation reference 36/38057/22.