A FARMER is urging dog owners to control their pets after three of his sheep were attacked.

Horrified Charles Heeley, of Brinsop Hall Farm, Westhoughton, checked his flock and discovered one with throat injuries and two others with body injuries.

Mr Heeley said such incidents are quite rare in his experience, but he also found a lamb with similar injuries last month and he believes dogs are responsible.

Fearing a lamb might die in a future attack, he is calling on dog walkers to keep their pets on leads when walking along public footpaths near the farm, which is off Brinsop Hall Lane and Dicconson Lane where Westhoughton meets Blackrod.

"Quite a lot of dog walkers use the public footpath as it's a quiet place to have a walk out," said Mr Heeley.

He added: "The Countryside Code says that dogs should be kept under control near wildlife and I think the best way to do this is keeping dogs on a short lead."

The code states that dogs should be controlled at all times so they do not scare or disturb farm animals or wildlife.

The attack happened at some point between 10.30am on Thursday and 7am on Friday.

Mr Heeley added: "The injuries are not the worst I've seen, so I would guess that the dog was accompanied by its owner, as it looks like they were able to pull the dog away from the lambs before it was too late.

"We do have signs up all around the farm to ask people to put their dogs on a lead and we care for our animals well, checking on them frequently. Not only do the attacks harm the lambs, they also cause stress to others.

"We are simply asking people to take notice of the signs and do their bit to protect the animals."