I live on a sheep-rearing island, and because I'm a handspinner, I know a lot of the local farmers. Every summer, tourists arrive with their dogs -- who have never seen a sheep. The visitors think it's wonderful to be in the country where their dogs can 'roam free.' (Never mind about cars, raccoons, etc. -- romanticism takes over.) And every summer, there are horrendous sheep kills and deer kills.
Most of us who live on the island know that, much as we love our dogs, they are dogs -- and many of them have a strong prey drive. I won't subject my neighbours to the devastation of a sheep kill by my dogs, and I won't risk my dogs to the gun that farmers are legally allowed to use if they catch a dog in with their sheep. They are leashed when we are near or visiting farms. On a lighter note: when my old dog Maggie was a puppy, I had some rather irascible Angora goats, one of whom turned her horns on Maggie when she got too inquisitive. Ever after, Maggie felt that white fuzzy creatures were to be carefully avoided. When Maggie was much older, I was once invited by a farmer to walk through the flock with Maggie, and decided I could keep an eye on her well enough to break my leash rule. At one point I called her to me, and watched her make a *very* wide circle around two tiny lambs to get to me. Susan and Djinn and Riley Salt Spring Island, BC
