A FARMER has launched a petition demanding that all dogs should be kept on leads near livestock by law to cut fatal attacks.

Kelly Garratt and partner Harley Baxter had eleven pregnant sheep killed by two roaming alsatians in Riddlesden last year.

And this month another attack on their flock, now at Micklethwaite, left a ewe and its lamb dead.

Miss Garratt has just launched an online petition calling for a change in existing law, which only states dogs should be kept under close control – not always on leads – when near farm animals.

She said neither of the dogs which carried out the first horrific attack beside the River Aire last year were destroyed and the owner was fined £100.

"Because I was a witness in the court case and had been there pulling the dogs off the sheep I got a letter telling me the gentleman who owned them was only fined £100 and got his dogs back," she said.

At the time of the slaughter, young farmer Mr Baxter, from East Morton, lined up the corpses close to Bradford Road with a large signboard that read "This is why dogs should be kept on leads".

"Things really need to change. This is a national problem, there are just too many attacks on livestock taking place," she said.

Animal lover Miss Garratt also runs a dog grooming parlour in Cavendish Court, Keighley, and said she blamed careless owners.

"I love dogs and they've always been my life and it's not their fault – it's the owners," she said.

"And those owners should realise they are putting their dogs at great risk of being shot by letting them off leads on farmland.

"There are plenty of places like the St Ives estate or Baildon Moor when it's empty where dogs can run as much as they like.

"But the other evening, once again we found ourselves with a dead Texel ewe and her lamb.

"A footpath runs along the edge of our land and an elderly couple of walkers said it was a big, white, fluffy dog that had done it.

"The problem is getting out of hand across the whole country and we have to try and keep our flocks safe.

"The law must change and there must be tougher fines and penalties."

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Dog walkers are urged to keep their pets on a lead when walking through farmers' fields where livestock is present especially at this time of year.

"Young livestock in particular can potentially be vulnerable to a loose dog and under Section 9 of the Animals Act, 1971, the landowner or anyone acting on their behalf, is entitled to shoot any dog on their land if they believe it is the only reasonable way of stopping it worrying livestock."

Miss Garratt's petition already has some 1,400 online signatures and can be found at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/126881.