THE National Sheep Association (NSA) is hopeful that its campaign to highlight the devastating impact of sheep worrying by dogs has increased awareness.

This year’s NSA campaign titled #LeadOn has attracted interest from a wide range of national broadcasters and press including BBC Breakfast, ITV Good Morning Britain and The Times as well as numerous regional television and radio programmes and newspapers.

With the campaign’s coverage and the news of a commitment for long awaited change to legislation surrounding the issue of sheep worrying by dogs, NSA hopes that an increase in awareness and understanding of the country’s dog owners on the seriousness of the problem could finally be achieved.

NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker comments: “NSA has worked tirelessly for many years to raise awareness of sheep worrying by dogs and part of this has been efforts to achieve a change in legislation in England and Wales protecting sheep farmers more effectively from dog attacks. This year’s campaign seems to have really caught the attention of the media and we are of course grateful to have had this platform from which to share our important messages.

“NSA was pleased to welcome the announcement in the Queen’s speech that the police are to be given new powers to respond more effectively to the most serious incidents of sheep worrying. Following the recent acceptance of the new legislation in Scotland that sees dog owners facing fines of up to £40,000 and possible prison sentences for the most serious of offenders we hope the UK will soon be an equal playing field for legislation on this matter.”

NSA has also held a series of interactive webinars.