A furious farmer has blasted clueless dog walkers for causing losses of up to £3,000 per year.
Richard Payne, an arable farmer in Somerset, has complained that members of the public walking through his property fail to understand they are on farmland when they pass through his property.
He said that people – many of whom he said are dog walkers – have extensively damaged his crops, saddling him with four-figure expenses.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 this morning, Mr Payne said people are “not interested in what is going on around them” when they walk through his farm.
The vast majority of walkers, he said, are chatting and “not really watching what their dogs do”, leaving them oblivious to the damage they cause.
The farmer said the dogs cause between £1,600 and £3,000 in damages every year, and his efforts to curb the number of people entering his property have failed.
The farmer said: “I don’t think what is growing in a field – to the majority of the people I watch on that footpath – it wouldn’t even enter into their consciousness that it was a crop.
“In money terms, it costs me between £1,600 and £3,000 depending on what crop is in the ground to the damage that’s done primarily by dogs.
“I’ve seen people walk up and down the footpaths with plastic ball throwers launching tennis balls into the crop, and I think: ‘What on earth are you doing?'”
Mr Payne said he has attempted to resolve the issue by dotting his land with signs but found they were quickly vandalised.
He said: “We’ve put signs up that have been both instructional and sometimes pleading and sometimes quite brusque.
“In about a week, they’re normally pulled down and lobbed into the river or a hedge.”
Speaking to the Farmers Guardian, Mr Payne had previously called for “respect” to come before the right to roam, with walkers wanting broader access to UK land.
Current legislation only allows ramblers to exercise the ancient rights over eight percent of land in England, where they may walk or wild camp.
Campaigners have recently taken solace in a ruling from the court of appeals that allows them to walk and camp in Dartmoor, with the Labour Party pledging to extend ramblers’ rights if it claims victory following the next election.
