A dog owner whose two huskies mauled and killed two sheep before one of them was shot has been ordered to pay compensation to the farmer.
Belinda King’s dogs were spotted running wild with blood on their faces in a field at Mayne Farm near Elgin in the early hours of the morning.
By the time the farmer, who also owns Allarburn Farm Shop, awoke to the sounds of barking and could react, the 43-year-old’s huskies had killed two of his sheep.
One of the huskies was shot dead by the farmer, while a dog control order was later placed on the surviving dog, Elgin Sheriff Court was told.
Dogs were also blamed for 80 duck deaths
King, 43, had also been accused of letting her same two huskies worry, attack and kill 80 ducks a week before the sheep incident. But her not-guilty plea to that charge was accepted by the Crown.
Dean Anderson and his daughter Hilary, owners of the Edgar Road farm shop, took to social media to speak of their devastation following the duck attacks.
The pair shared a series of images highlighting the scale of the slaughter and the injuries inflicted upon the ducks that survived.
The widely-shared post prompted a police appeal and calls for more awareness over livestock worrying.
Huskies had blood on faces
Fiscal depute Stuart Coleman said the farmer was awoken at 4.30am on September 19 last year to the sounds of barking outside his house.
“I awoke and looked out the window to see what was going on. He saw two husky dogs were trying to attack sheep outside his property.
“He noted they had blood on their faces.
“The husky dogs later moved away. Though it has not been narrated, one of the dogs was later shot by the witness during the incident. He is the owner of a licensed shotgun.
“The second dog has not been destroyed but there has been a dog control notice put in place.”
Court told of loss to farmer
Mr Coleman added that the two sheep had a combined value of £500.
King pled guilty to one charge of livestock worrying at a notional trial diet in May. Her not-guilty plea to a second charge, involving the ducks, was accepted at the same time.
Her defence agent, Stephen Carty, suggested a structured deferred sentence be put in place but Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood said: “A farmer is £500 out of our pocket here. Payment of some sort of compensation would be appropriate.”
The solicitor said his client’s financial situation is “very limited” but offered to pay any compensation order at £10 per fortnight.
Sheriff Fleetwood ordered King, of Glenlossie Drive, Elgin, to pay compensation to the farmer involved totalling £500 at a rate of £10 every two weeks.
She was also handed a structured deferred sentence for six months in relation to an assault whereby she seized a woman by the throat in Coop in Elgin in January 2022.
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