A year after a horrific dog attack claimed 116 sheep from his flock, an innovative farmer has invested in new guardians, two male alpacas.
Last March, Hampshire-based Gordon Wyeth was devastated to lose 116 of his sheep in a vicious dog attack on land at East Dean, near Chichester, in West Sussex.
Sergeant Tom Carter, of Sussex Police, said at the time: "I have never seen or heard of sheep-worrying on this scale before and this was a terrible sight."
Now, Gordon’s professional shepherd Lizzie Rough has introduced Tom and Jerry, two male alpacas, into a 50-acre field at the same site at Farbridge, East Dean, to guard 500 ewes that are due to lamb on April.
Gordon Wyeth said: “The reason why we have these alpacas now is because of what happened here a year ago. We want to avoid dog attacks on sheep at all costs. We have scanned ewes from this flock to check their pregnancy and we estimate that we have already lost more than £4,000 in lost lambs. We believe these losses are largely down to dogs worrying our sheep.”
Alpacas are docile creatures, but are sometimes bought to protect birds and other livestock, as foxes and other predators are wary of being trampled.
In 2015, Alpacas from the Andes guarded a flock of sheep at the National Trust’s in hand farm, Hafod-y-Llan in North Wales.
