A man who allowed his dogs to repeatedly chase and injure sheep — leading to the death of several animals — has been banned from walking dogs near livestock for the next seven years.
Jose Lopez-Vidal, 62, from Woodford Halse, admitted five counts of livestock worrying after a series of distressing incidents in the Northamptonshire countryside.
The most serious event occurred on 16 March, when a farmer near Preston Capes called 999 after witnessing two dogs attacking heavily pregnant ewes in their field.
Mr Lopez-Vidal identified himself at the scene as the owner of the dogs, named Bandit and Ace.
One of the ewes later gave birth to three stillborn lambs and subsequently died from her injuries.
An investigation by Northamptonshire Police’s Rural Crime Team linked his dogs to two other livestock attacks — one on 12 December 2024 and another on 20 February 2025 — all resulting in distress, injury or death to ewes and lambs.
Appearing at Northampton Magistrates’ Court on 2 June, Mr Lopez-Vidal pleaded guilty to all five charges.
He was fined a total of £1,333 and ordered to pay £1,038 in compensation, along with a £533 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.
In addition, the court issued a rare ancillary order under section 1A of the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953.
The seven-year order prohibits him from taking any dog under his control onto land that he knows, or reasonably should know, to be agricultural land where livestock is present or likely to be present. The order was confirmed on 14 July.
One of the affected farmers described the emotional toll of the incident: “This incident has really upset me. Seeing what my ewes have gone through is heartbreaking.
"The amount of work it took to look after them after the event affected us emotionally, and to then lose one of them is devastating.
“We respect our animals and look after them to the best of our abilities and I have lost confidence in people who go through our field.
"I am constantly worrying if they will have their dogs on leads, whether they will stick to the footpath or whether I will be verbally abused if I were to ask them to keep their dog on a lead and respect our footpaths.”
PC Chloe Gillies from the Rural Crime Team welcomed the court’s decision: “The repeated failure of Jose Lopez-Vidal to be a responsible dog owner has caused farmers around Preston Capes and Woodford Halse a huge amount of upset.
“Although Lopez-Vidal did identify himself to two affected farmers and apologised to them, he took no steps to change his behaviour or keep his dogs on leads to prevent further attacks.
“By letting his dogs run wild, his actions led to the unnecessary injury and deaths of ewes and lambs, causing heartbreak to the farmers and leaving them also suffering financially."
