Opinion: It’s hard to legislate against stupidity
© iStockphoto I was in the kitchen making a Monday morning coffee when movement on our neighbour’s croft caught my eye.
Two small dogs were running loose among the flock of Hebridean ewes.
I ran out, dragging my boots on as I went. One dog was trying and failing to bite a ewe as she fled into the thickest bracken.
See also: Opinion – we want and need politicians with authenticity
About the author
Two young women emerged from the steep footpath running through the croft, and leashed the dogs. They made to walk away, but changed their minds and met me as I got to the footpath gate.
Before I could speak, one of them said she was sorry and that they were from England so didn’t know the law.
I won’t transcribe the conversation but, reader, I explained the law to them. I explained how it works in Scotland, and in England.
I explained about the £40,000 sheep worrying fine. Oh right, they said. I explained about the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. They’d never heard of it.
Had they seen the bright yellow NFUS sign on the pedestrian gate they’d passed through, warning of sheep grazing and to keep dogs on leads? They hadn’t.
They just wanted to go for a walk, they said, apparently implying they were innocent victims of circumstances beyond their control. One had relatives who live on a farm.
They weren’t the kind of irresponsible people who’d let dogs attack sheep. If this was a game of sheep worrying bingo, we’d have had a full house.
Seeing my incredulous expression, one got truculent and whinged “it’s not like we’ve killed a sheep”. She said they’d apologised, and that should be enough.
I replied that she was in the wrong, and not to give me attitude. Also, they were lucky their dogs hadn’t had to be shot. This finally seemed to register, and a sincere apology was given.
Now because people frequently lie, and there are access activists who say incidents like this are exaggerated, I recorded the interaction – four minutes and 57 seconds long.
Listening back to it, I noticed that I sound exhausted rather than angry. Dog attacks are stressful, and these weren’t even our sheep. Our neighbour wasn’t there, but crofters look after each other.
The thing is, nothing more could’ve been done to prevent this incident. What caused it was stupidity. I don’t intend to be derogatory – I simply mean that the women’s behaviour lacked thought and sound judgement.
All the necessary information was available to them, but they couldn’t use it. Stupid people are dangerous. They harm others and themselves – this pair could’ve got a huge fine or a prison sentence.
Luckily, their wee dogs were too feeble to cause serious damage. Even luckier that the ewes weren’t in lamb.
This is an example of the law clashing with modern reality, where brains are addled by phones and algorithms.
Laws only work when they’re understood. Many access takers are incurably irresponsible not necessarily because they’re bad, but because they lack mental ability.
Legal punishment can’t be an effective deterrent when such people don’t even know the law exists, or can’t comprehend its seriousness.
Legislators are wrong to think signage, websites and leaflets will result in responsible behaviour. Intellectually impoverished people are resistant to education.
So, can sheep worrying be prevented? Alarmingly, it seems the realistic response is no.