Last summer one of my hens was killed by a local dog being walked by it’s owner. My hen was on the path which runs alongside my property and the hen should not have been out. It has just happened again, involving two other local people with dogs.
Occasionally my free range hens push their free ranging to the limit and may get over the wall onto the path. They shouldn’t be there but at the end of the day they don’t pose a danger to any passing dogs. You would hope that the dogs wouldn’t pose a danger to the hens but it seems that there is a growing lack of awareness of other animals and livestock and an inability to train dogs to simple commands such as “leave” or “lie down”. I freely admit that I know very little about training a dog but it strikes me that the huge increase in dog ownership has not moved hand in hand with an appreciation of the need to train and control the dogs. Whether in the village or in a field, if you can’t control your dog in the presence of other animals (hens, cats, lambs etc.), the dog should be on a lead.
Fiona H
PARWICH.ORG 
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