A PLEA has gone out to pet owners after shocking new figures reveal the damage caused to livestock by dogs.

A multi-force police working group – which includes North Yorkshire Police – is calling for changes in the law, including making dog attacks a recordable crime, giving police power to seize dogs and harsher sentences for owners.

This is after it was revealed that hundreds of attacks have taken place on Yorkshire farms in recent years.

Although there is little reliable police data on the scale of the problem, North Yorkshire Police filed 329 cases of livestock worrying from September 2013 to August 2017.

In total, 280 animals were killed and 292 were injured - and in 16 of the recorded incidents the dog was shot.

The owner was not present in 79 per cent of the recorded attacks and almost one fifth of cases involved dogs who had worried or damaged livestock before.

North Yorkshire farmers suffered recorded losses of £19,970 from killed and injured livestock and dog owners were fined £3,333 in court.

Gerard Salvin, of Richmond-based farm insurance broker specialist Lycetts, said that even if a non-aggressive dog is ‘playing’ with livestock, the stress caused can still lead to deaths and miscarriages - and even a bark can panic a flock.

He added: “Farmers are well aware of how devastating a dog attack can be; it is not only extremely upsetting to find their animals maimed or killed but could be the blow that ends their farming business.”