UKH

Recently we were out on a local hill and found a sheep completely entangled in brambles and contorted in exhaustion - barely alive.  Using leatherman etc we got it free and dragged it to a more comfortable spot and wet its mouth with some liquid - it was semi conscious and gulped but never responded more.  I was just ignorant of - what then ?  Luckily my smart companion and the trusty technology found an RSPCA reporting number then gave a what 3 word location and details.  Then we just had to leave it.  

Note to self - emergency thin sticky warehouse gloves and carry the Swiss Army knife because the saw is brilliant. 

What other experience and advice is out in UKC land ?  

Pop to the nearest farm and tell them about it. Farmers all know each other and if you can describe the location they'll pass on the information. That's what I do. If I found a wild animal in distress I'd deal with it myself or report it to the RSPCA. 

“Pop to a farm” is what I thought. It probably worked 20 or 30 years ago, but in practice  most farms have been converted to trumpy residences and holiday cottages - the actual farmer could be 30 miles away. RSPCA works. Is it the best option? Is there a way of finding farmers phone numbers? 

It's what I did up Teesdale when I came across a ewe having a hard time. Or locally. RSPCA is there to deal with animal distress so ringing them should be a good idea. 

If you have Google maps to hand, dropping a pin at the location will help the farmer locate the animal.

My experience is quite the opposite.

Local farmhouse. What I did last time. But I had to walk by the location of the stuck sheep again only to find it had freed itself, leaving behind a good amount of wool on the wire.

A clear case of crag swag.

If you can find an old sack or something it's best to cover a sheep's head if it's lying helpless on the ground. Crows...

I was up on Bleaklow a few years back and came across a young lamb standing dutifully by the body of its dead mother - quite a distressing sight. I called the RSPCA when back in the valley but they weren't particularly interested and said to call the county council. I called the council and explained the situation to the slightly confused operator, who said I'd receive a call back later. I got the call back and was surprised when the bloke on the other end of the phone said he was from Trading Standards - apparently budget cuts at the council now meant that they were now responsible for dealing with stray animals. He said they'd send someone to investigate, but unsurprisingly I never heard anything back.

Another option is to get the sheep’s ear tag number and report it to your local authority (trading standards dept’) or animal registry. This number will indicate the farm responsible. They won’t pass you the details but they will usually contact the farm.

I'd definitely say speak to someone local. The animal in question might not have more than a day to live, if that, and anyone central is almost certainly going to have a long to-do list and that is just going to drop right off the bottom.

You should be able to find someone locally who is a farmer and they will know whose sheep they are. My experience of informing farmers when you see an animal with problems is that they get on the case pretty rapidly because a) they care and b) they have a vested interest. The animal might just be getting killed anyway but if the farmer does it it's going to be short and pretty painless, dying in the wild is likely going to be long and agonising.

When trying to find a farm/farmer/someone who knows farmers, you are looking for a 4x4 that actually has mud on it or any house which doesn't look freshly renovated or any house that has junk/machinery outside it.

Is this an English thing? I don't remember ever seeing a sheep with jewellery in Scotland, around my parts they just slap a dollop of whatever colour paint they have lying around on the side and that's it!

It’s the law for sheep older than 1 year old throughout the UK.

Wow, didn't know that. I guess I'm not surprised with all the tracking and tracing of every single thing in existence that we have going on these days. I'm going to look at some of the sheep around where I am, maybe tommorrow, I _swear_ none of them have tags.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sheep-and-goat-keepers-how-to-identify-your-ani...

Thanks. I had already had a little google and found that exact page

I've had similar encounters with sheep and in one case a deer. I've managed to cut completely ensnared sheep free from brambles as I carry a pair of pruning shears in my sac to clear bramble blocked paths and stiles.

The deer was more of a problem. It was a hind and she had caught her back foot in the top strand of a high wire fence she had tried to jump, twisting the wire tightly round her leg, leaving her hanging there by her foot. She was still alive when I found her. I didn't have any tools strong enough to cut the wire or even untwist it, so I went to the nearest "farm" house which was about half a mile away. As has been said above, it was no longer a working farm but owned by a yuppy type city dweller down for the weekend. However she said she would try to ring around neighbours to see if she could find out who the land owner was, and was very helpful.

Often a bit of a dilemma what to do with stranded and distressed animals.    Unfortunately I think many of those that we find trapped in field boundaries have been trying to escape the round up. I have freed several over the years. Agree with the comments on farms. I walked to two buildings I thought would be farms not that long ago.  Both turned out to be empty holiday lets.  That sheep was well enough to follow me around for two miles, after I freed it.  Eventually I left it in a field with some cows in it for company.  No doubt when the farmer found it it went the way of it's kin.

Mine too.  RSPCA - Royal Society for Pretty Crap Assistance.  Good at raising dosh though, judging by the neverending series of money envelopes that get pushed through the letter box.

You did well.

In the case of domestic stock which I couldn't free I've always gone to the nearest farm and they've either come and got it free themselves or phoned the farmer who owns the land/stock.

Perhaps the farms around the North York moors are somewhat smaller than the big anonymous outfits elsewhere.

I'm not too sure about the viability of asking the RSPCA to come and free some one elses farm animal without being asked directly by the farmer.

I drove past a load of sheep that had escaped from a field and were at the roadside a couple of hundred yards off the M62, junction 21 I think (Saddleworth area).  Seriusly had no idea what to do, wouldn't know where to start looking for the nearest farm and was concerned that everyone using the road is still in 'motorway 70mph mode', so I called 101.  Was pretty much made to feel like a moron for calling them, and the conversation was getting to the point of "yes, there is a fence between the road and the field...but the sheep are on the wrong side of it.....if they were on the other side of it, it wouldn't really be a problem"....and then they transferred me to the 999 line before I had a chance to object and so now I feel like even more of a moron for calling an emergency number about wandering sheep.

I'm not sure what happens with sheep, and whether farmers routinely do head counts.

A few years back I found a sheep stuck in mud at the back of the roaches. I tried to free it but no luck. I went to the nearest house and some bloke came to help. Took a good while to find it again though. In hindsight I should have left a marker.

Had a similar incident with a Red Deer caught on a fence it had failed to clear. Cut the fence with a Swiss Army knife to release the animal.

Rescuing sheep and lambs is a regular occurrence for me. You can't underestimate the ability of sheep to do the wrong thing............ 

A couple of years ago I called 999 when I spotted a deer standing the other side of the armco on that woody central reservation on the M4 near Heathrow. The motorway was really busy and the consequences if it jumped into the road would have been horrendous but I had similar difficulties making myself understood. Don't know if anything happened.

A few years back I found an apparently dead sheep laid on its back in a field in Langdale (Lakes). I went down to the nearest farm to let them know, then walked back up with the farmer. He took a look at it, then grabbed its legs and heaved it over and it stumbled away. He told me that they'd had so much rain that the sheep's fleeces were getting waterlogged, and they were becoming unstable and unable to right themselves. Rigwelted, as they say in Yorkshire.

The sheep had been completely motionless when I'd approached it (presumably frightened) so it's always worth checking.

All the farmers I know do a daily check of their sheep in fields.  But if they're on the hill/moorland etc., they don't.

Always roll a yew back over if it's on its back. It happens quite often and they can suffocate under their own weight.

I have 'rescued' a few sheep, a goat and a deer over the last two years but not needed to call anyone. The deer I did consider reporting as one rear leg was caught between two barbed wire strings which had tightened around its hoof. It jerked violently until I got close then it totally calmed down. I was on my own and used the tip of my walking stick between the two strands of barbed wire. I separated them enough and the deer got out but the freed tension in the wire spun the pole round giving me a deep cut in my hand. Still, the deer ran to the edge of the wood, looked back, hopefully saying thanks and we both survived!!