Police warning after latest dog attack in Wiltshire Police have issued a stern warning after the latest dog attack in Wiltshire. Officers are appealing for witnesses to a sheep worrying incident on Whitesheet Hill in Kilmington, near to Warminster. Between 1pm and 4pm on Saturday 23 January, one sheep was discovered injured and another found to have been attacked two days earlier. While the farmer was busy tending to the injured animals, a dog walker approached with his dog off the lead. The man then became upset after the farmer asked him to place his dog on a lead. PCSO Candida Jackson, of Wiltshire Police, said: This is the third sheep attack we have had in the past two weekends in our area.
The sheep involved has been treated by a vet. At the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Devenish reserve, the sheep are regularly found spooked and distressed after contact from unmanaged dogs. They say: Visitors to nature reserve sites are asked to always observe the clearly visible signs, telling them that dogs must be kept on leads and kept out of certain sensitive areas entirely. The Trust has had wildlife and livestock killed and injured by dogs previously, and the stress to them alone can cause considerable harm. The Trust is urging all dog owners who visit one of their sites to please keep all dogs on the lead, to help protect the health and happiness of the wildlife and animals who live there.
DEVIZES people have called for a special area of land near Drews Pond and its nature reserve to be protected. The land at Greenacres has been included as a potential development site in the town’s local development plan. The land borders the former railway line and locals say it has become a haven for bats, birds and deer. Pheasants and squirrels were spotted foraging there when the Gazette visited the site. Angela Taylor, who moved to Devizes from Cornwall , said: “You rarely get space like this, it’s really special. I’m disabled, and it’s also one of the few green places I can access and enjoy properly, I really don’t want to lose it.
Ipsum in Swindon provides low-cost one-to-one counselling as well as art, music and writing therapy groups. Its vital work in supporting others through the pandemic has been aided by a £36,000 grant from the Wiltshire Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund Chief executive Julie Mattinson said the grant will help cover its running costs to allow it to stay open, increase its volunteer counsellors and expand its services online to cope with the extra calls for help. She said: “We are seeing a significant increase in frontline workers coming to us during the pandemic because they are struggling. They are under relentless strain at work as well as having to manage their home lives and they are just finding it hard to cope with everything.”