A stud is calling for a change in law after a heavily pregnant mare, and a mare with her two-week-old foal was chased by an out-of-control dog. Becca Cameron, youngstock manager at Ormiston Highlands in Kingussie, Scotland, discovered pregnant mare Gordina and mare and foal Jura and Norman being chased by a husky. “I heard the pounding of hooves and saw the dog chasing them.
The owner was nowhere to be seen,” Becca said. “I shouted at the dog, but it wouldn’t come over to me so I had to chase it away. It’s not the first incident we’ve had with the husky, it has been caught chasing our stallions and on another occasion chased a Shetland pony and a child fell off. We’ve reported the owner before and spoken to him, but he says things like we must have been mistaken and that it wasn’t his dog.”
The next day Norman was found stuck in a fence after what Becca believes was a second incident involving different dogs. “I saw a man with two collies off the lead on the pathway that runs through the field. Norman and Jura were together, I went away for five minutes and by the time I got back Norman had gone through the fence and the man was at the other side of the field with his dogs,” said Becca.
“Norman was squealing and his leg was stuck – he could have broken it. If I hadn’t been there we could have had a dead foal, it was awful. We need a law that forces people to put their dogs on leads. I am expecting another incident to happen – people can do what they want and we can’t stop them. We’re happy for people to walk their dogs here because they have done for years, but we just want them on leads.”
