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More than two-thirds of the UKs sheep farmers responding to a recent survey have experienced an increase in sheep worrying attacks by dogs during the past year.

The troubling statistic is part of a "concerning" set of findings released by the National Sheep Association (NSA) from its recent farmers survey assessing the incidence and impact of sheep worrying by dog attacks.

NSA received a record-breaking response for its 2021 survey specifically aimed at farmers who had experienced dog attacks in the past year. The increase in contributions indicates the scale of the serious problem.

On average, each respondent to the survey experienced seven cases of sheep worrying during the past year resulting in five sheep injured and two sheep killed per attack.

Estimated financial losses through incidents of sheep worrying of up to 50,000 were recorded with an average across all respondents of 1570. However, most respondents received no or very little compensation.

But in addition to the threat to animal welfare and the farmers income perhaps the most concerning finding to be taken from the survey is the effect the issue is having on the mental wellbeing of the countrys sheep farmers. Farmers completing the survey reported feelings of anxiety, anger, upset, stress and frustration as a result of sheep worrying by dog attacks with more than half recognising that this was causing a moderate to severe impact on their mental health.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker says: NSAs own survey results combined with recently reported figures from industry partners both show a concerning increase in the number of sheep worrying by dogs cases during the past year.

"There is much evidence suggesting this is a result of the various periods of national lockdown that have been experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic with dog ownership increasing and the general public enjoying more time in the countryside as one of the few outdoor pursuits still able to be enjoyed.

The issue is receiving more attention from the media but there is still much work to do to continue the education of the dog owning public to ensure the future safety and welfare of both farmers sheep flocks and pet owners much loved dogs and this needs to come from strengthened countryside use guidelines and stricter legislation.

The urgent need for a review of legislation surrounding the issue is highlighted in the survey.

Some 80 per cent of respondents agreed that the rest of the UK should follow the recent change in Scottish law that sees stricter enforcement including fines of up to 40,000 and/or 12 months imprisonment acting a stronger deterrent to dog owners responsible for allowing attacks to happen.

A full summary of NSAs survey results can be found on the NSA website at https://go.nationalsheep.org.uk/surveyresults.

The survey results have been shared as NSA launches its two-week long 2021 campaign #LeadOn aiming to increase awareness of the issue amongst the general dog owning public.

The sheep farming charity hopes the alarming survey results will help demonstrate the extent of the issue to the general public.

It is also working hard to raise understanding that any breed and temperament of dog can be a threat to sheep and therefore the only way to tackle the issue is to ensure dogs are kept on a lead whenever sheep could be nearby, even if they are out of sight.

Highland police issue warning to dog owners

'Horrific' injuries from dog attacks prompts new warning

Excerpt from:
Sheep-worrying campaign stepped up as farmer survey reveals alarming statistics on livestock worrying; National Sheep Association launches public...

The Guardian

When Mike Beck developed a rare form of Parkinsons US intelligence concluded he was the victim of a hi-tech weapon Havanna Syndrome illustrating the use of suspected micro/radio waves Composite: Guardian Design/Getty When the first reports surfaced of a mysterious disorder that was afflicting dozens of US diplomats in Cuba, Mike Becks reaction was one of recognition and relief. Beck, a retired National Security Agency counterintelligence officer, was at his home in Maryland, scrolling through the days news on his computer when he spotted the story, and remembers shouting out to his wife. I got excited because I thought: well, its coming out now that its not a mirage, Beck said. I felt bad for the victims but thought: Now Im no longer one of one. Im one of many. Beck had been forced into retirement in late 2016 by a rare early-onset, non-tremor form of Parkinsons disease, and he had evidence, supplied by the NSA and the CIA, that he could have been the victim of a deliberate attack from a microwave weapon. After years of lonely struggle, he now feels vindicated. Last December the National Academy of Sciences published a report finding that the scores of CIA and state department officials affected by Havana syndrome in Cuba, China and elsewhere, were most likely suffering the effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency energy. After years of playing down the reports and failing to provide proper medical care for the victims, Washington is now clearly alarmed at the implications of the attacks. The Democratic and Republican leadership on the Senate intelligence committee put out a bipartisan statement on Friday, saying: This pattern of attacking our fellow citizens serving our government appears to be increasing. The statement came the day after the White House said it was looking into unexplained health incidents after reports that two of its own officials had been targeted in the Washington area. The CIA and state department have launched taskforces to investigate and it was reported last week that the Pentagon had launched its own inquiry into suspected microwave attacks on US troops in the Middle East. Earlier this month, the senior director for the western hemisphere in the national security council, Juan Gonzalez, voiced concern over the lingering risk to US diplomats from microwave weapons in Cuba, in an interview with the CNN Spanish language service. The reality is that this has been an intelligence community issue for decades Mark Zaid But what is so striking about Becks case is that its origins were two decades earlier and that it produced official confirmation more than eight years ago that such weapons had been developed by Americas adversaries. That raises more questions about why the CIA and state department were so reluctant to believe their own officers could have been targeted by such weapons when cases appeared in Cuba and then China in 2018 and elsewhere around the world. The reality is that this has been an intelligence community issue for decades, said Mark Zaid, a lawyer representing both Beck and Havana Syndrome victims. An NSA statement declassified in 2014 for Becks work injury compensation case stated: The National Security Agency confirms that there is intelligence information from 2012 associating the hostile country to which Mr Beck traveled in the late 1990s, with a high powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy, over time, and without leaving evidence. The 2012 intelligence information indicated that this weapon is designed to bathe a targets living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system. Beck is still not allowed to name the hostile country he visited in 1996, but said he and a colleague, Charles Chuck Gubete, had gone to make sure a US diplomatic building under construction was not bugged. It was a sensitive assignment, Beck told the Guardian. So we knew what we were getting into from the standpoint of the hostile country being a critical threat environment. On arrival, he and Gubete were detained at the airport and then put up in adjoining rooms in a budget hotel after their release. On their second day on the project, they expanded their sweep to a neighbouring building and came across what he calls a technical threat to the equity we were there to protect. A worker looks at a huge concrete Cuban flag being built in front of the US embassy in Havana last month. Photograph: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images They reported the device to their superiors and left it in place. The next day, they were passed a message from a local translator working with the Americans that the host country authorities, in Becks words, had seen what we did and that was not a good thing. The next day, Beck said: I woke up and I was really, really groggy. I was not able to wake up routinely. It was not a normal event. I had several cups of coffee and that didnt do a thing to get me going. The symptoms passed by the time Beck and Gubete returned to the US. But 10 years later, when Beck was in the UK, on secondment to General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britains NSA counterpart, he came down suddenly with crippling symptoms. The right side of my body started freezing up. I was limping and I couldnt move my arm, he said. He was referred to a neurologist who diagnosed Parkinsons. At the time, Beck was 45. I thought this is not coincidental that were both presenting the same variant of Parkinsons at the same time Mike Beck Shortly afterwards, he was visiting NSA headquarters and happened to bump into Gubete. Beck was shocked by what he saw. He was walking like an old man, he recalled. He was slumped over and walking really awkwardly. I went up to him and said: Whats going on? Within a few days, Gubete, 55 at the time, was diagnosed with the same form of Parkinsons disease as Beck. Ive worked in counter-intelligence for the predominance of my career, Beck said. I thought this is not coincidental that were both presenting the same variant of Parkinsons at the same time. This is not happenstance. The cause of their shared plight was a total mystery to Beck until 2012 when he saw US intelligence communications about a microwave weapon with potentially debilitating neurological effects developed by the country he and Gubete visitedtogether. He was able to get part of that intelligence declassified for his labor department claim in 2014 but by then it was too late for Gubete. He had died at home, of a suspected heart attack the previous year. Mike Beck. Photograph: Handout Even with the declassified intelligence, the NSA leadership continued to oppose Becks claim, so he arranged a briefing by CIA experts who came to NSA headquarters in the spring of 2016. Their opinion was based upon information that they had and that NSA didnt have access to and they supported my affirmation that I had been attacked in the hostile country with a microwave weapon, Beck recalled. They said it was a no-brainer that this medical condition was due to an attack. On 24 August 2016, according to Beck and his lawyer, Zaid, the head of NSA security and counter-intelligence, Kemp Ensor, sent an email to the NSA chief of staff, Liz Brooks, supporting Becks account. The NSA did not respond to a request for comment. There are still many unanswered questions about the Beck case. Gubete had a family history of Parkinsons and any causal effect between microwave radiation and the disease is unknown, and differs from the more recent cases. But it is clear from the Beck case that when the wave of Havana syndrome injuries began in 2016, US intelligence agencies knew much more that they admitted to. My head was spinning, incredible nausea, I felt like I had to go to the bathroom and throw up. It was just a terrifying moment Marc Polymeropoulos It took a three-year campaign by CIA and state department employees targeted by the attacks to have their illnesses taken seriously, to receive proper treatment and for the mysterious attacks to be properly investigated. That its taken me three years to get treatment is disgraceful, ethically and morally, said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior officer in the CIAs clandestine service,. You make a pact when you join the Central Intelligence Agency particularly in the operations side, the silent service. They asked me to do some really unusual and risky things over the years, in some pretty bad places but you always had a pact with your leadership that if you got jammed up, they would have your back, he said. Polymeropoulos was visiting Moscow in 2017, as deputy chief of operations of the CIAs Europe and Eurasia Mission Centre, when he experienced crippling symptoms of an attack. I was woken up in the middle of the night with an incredible case of vertigo, he said. My head was spinning, incredible nausea, I felt like I had to go to the bathroom and throw up. It was just a terrifying moment for me. I had tinnitus which was ringing in my ears, and the vertigo was really what was incredibly debilitating and I really wasnt sure what was happening. I couldnt stand up. I was falling over. Since that incident, I have had a headache 24/7 for three years and theres a mental health challenge in this too, Polymeropoulos said. I was able to work for two hours every morning but then Id be spent. Even having a conversation like this, I would be exhausted after that. The US embassy in Moscow in 2012. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images He is convinced that Russia is behind the attacks, and also says he is certain that Russia is the unnamed country in the Beck case. In 1996, the US was in the process of tearing down the top two storeys of its Moscow embassy because the building was so full of bugging devices. Four new floors were constructed with the aim of creating a secure environment. The new CIA director, William Burns, assured Congress earlier this month that he was taking the problem seriously and that he had appointed a senior officer to run a taskforce ensuring people get the care they deserve and need, and also making sure we get to the bottom of this. Polymeropoulos, who is now being treated at Walter Reed military hospital and is pushing for other CIA victims to get similar treatment, said he was cautiously optimistic. Under Bill Burns, there seems to be a sea change. We have to see actions now, not just words. But I have hope, he said. Meanwhile, a quarter-century after his ill-fated trip to a hostile nation, Michael Beck is still fighting for workers compensation. The Department of Labor has turned down his claim but the one-year window for appeal is still open. Im not suing anyone, he said. Im just looking for whats right out of this.

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The National Sheep Association (NSA) is encouraging retailers, pet service providers (such as vets and rescue centres) and popular visitor sites to join together this spring to raise awareness of sheep worrying by dogs.

With cases of sheep worrying attacks by dogs continuing to rise, the NSA is preparing to launch its 2021 campaign supporting the issue, and is suggesting others play their part in tackling the problem too.

NSA chief executive, Phil Stocker, commented:

As a farmer facing organisation it can be difficult for the NSA to reach the general public with the simple but crucial message to keep dogs on leads whenever sheep might be nearby.

The NSA is therefore calling on those with regular contact with dog owners in the many varied areas of life to help spread this message also, he added.

To assist with promotion of NSAs 2021 #LeadOn campaign we ask as many public-facing organisations and companies as possible to display our newly designed, eye-catching graphics and posters.

Together a change in attitudes and reduction in this devastating problem can be achieved and the welfare of thousands of sheep that are affected each year improved.

The NSAs plea comes ahead of the release of results from the associations 2021 sheep farmers survey assessing the impact of sheep worrying by dogs on farmers across the UK during the past year.

Having received a record-breaking response to the survey, the NSA is confident results will show an increase in cases of sheep worrying by dogs over the past year as lockdown has seen an increase in dog ownership.

The concern of many UK farmers is now of the ongoing issues with dogs who may have not been able to be fully trained and socialised over the lockdown period due to Covid-19 restrictions, and the problems they could potentially cause while enjoying walks through the countryside.

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NSA calls for combined effort to raise awareness of sheep worrying by dogs - Agriland.co.uk

Italian prosecutors have asked a judge to put four senior members of Egypts powerful security services on trial over their suspected role in the disappearance and murder of Giulio Regeni in Cairo in 2016, as the case finally reached a courtroom five years after his death.

The 28-year-old doctoral student went missing in Cairo on 25 January 2016 while researching Egypts unions. His body was discovered on an outlying Cairo highway nine days later, displaying signs of extreme torture and abuse.

The Rome prosecutors have accused Gen Tariq Saber, Col Aser Ibrahim, Capt Hesham Helmi, and Maj Magdi Abd al-Sharif of the aggravated kidnapping of Regeni. Sharif, they say, should also be charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.

Any trial will take place in absentia, after the Egyptian state refused to recognise the Italian legal process or extradite the four suspects. Preliminary hearings were suspended until 25 May after one of the state-appointed defence lawyers was quarantined due to exposure to Covid-19.

The hearings mark the culmination of five years of investigation into Regenis death, and a vanishingly rare moment of accountability for Egypts security forces. A judge is expected to spend the coming weeks weighing whether to continue the trial, potentially indicting the suspects for murder before full trial proceedings begin.

The Regeni family, their legal team and human rights groups investigating a pattern of abuses by Egyptian security forces welcomed the hearing, despite it occurring in absentia. Some observers remarked that the Italian authorities should do more to pressure Egypt into extraditing the suspects.

Regenis parents, Paola and Claudio Regeni, issued a joint statement via their lawyer Alessandra Ballerini this week urging more potential witnesses to come forward.

Many other witnesses are coming forward, they said. Time is a great ally. Well keep asking everyone with information to come forward and speak. We will guarantee their security and will not disclose their identity, as we have done so far. Once again we ask you: help us, for Giulio and for all of us.

On 14 April, Rome prosecutors said three new witnesses came forward to accuse the four Egyptian security service members of torturing and murdering the Italian student.

One of the witnesses reportedly told prosecutors that the four staged a robbery gone wrong to try to cover up Regenis torture and murder. The witnesses, deemed reliable by the prosecutors, say Regeni was kidnapped by agents of the Egyptian National Security Agency (NSA) on 25 January 2016, and taken to at least two security facilities in the space of a few hours.

Egyptian officials have denied any involvement in the killing and Egypts public prosecutor officially closed its own investigation into Regenis murder late last year, saying that the Italian authorities claims of the officers involvement did not rise to the level of evidence.

Its unprecedented for NSA officers to be prosecuted and have the case heard in a court of law, said Hussein Baoumi, a researcher on Egypt with Amnesty International. Torture is so prevalent in Egypt, everyone knows the NSA is practising it as well as enforced disappearances and unlawful killings. But there has never been a case where an officer was prosecuted and went to trial. Yes this is in absentia, but it sends a strong message that you cant escape justice forever.

All four accused officers are still serving, and Saber was recently promoted. This means theyre potentially in a position to commit similar crimes, said Baoumi.

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, whose lawyers act as the Regeni familys legal representation in Egypt, reported last year that at least 2,653 people had been forcibly disappeared by security forces, primarily the NSA, since 2015. The NSA has been freed to commit violations unchecked, the commission said.

Regenis death soured relations between Italy and Egypt, and Rome initially withdrew its ambassador from Cairo in protest. It subsequently restored its top envoy and there has been no let-up in trade relations. Days after prosecutors called for the trial of the four Egyptians, Italy handed over the first of two frigates to the Egyptian navy in a deal worth up to 1.2bn (1bn).

Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said Italian authorities should resist Egypts efforts to protect the officers. The trial is a positive step, but these officers are still potentially escaping justice if the Egyptians authorities dont hand them over to Italy or prosecute them in Egypt, which they dont want to do, said Baoumi.

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Italian judge is asked to put Egyptian officers on trial over Giulio Regeni death - The Guardian

With the devastating issue of sheep worrying by dogs continuing to affect sheep farmers and their flocks across the UK, the National Sheep Association (NSA) is preparing to launch a campaign to raise awareness of the problem.

Traditionally, the NSA has held a week-long campaign each spring highlighting the subject of sheep worrying by dogs, alongside its year-round work to tackle the problem.

However, with cases increasing at an alarming rate, the sheep farming charity will run a series of online activites over an extended period of two weeks this year, in an effort to have a greater impact on the important messaging of responsible dog ownership needed to protect sheep flocks.

The NSA will launch its 2021 campaign, titled #LeadOn on Friday, April 30, by releasing the latest results from its farmers survey.

The survey has broken all previous NSA survey records for the number of respondents sharing their experiences of attacks on their flocks during the past year, an early indication of the shocking scale of the problem.

NSA chief executive, Phil Stocker, commented:

Sheep farmers across the UK have suffered an increase in sheep worrying attacks by dogs over the past year, as dog ownership has increased and walking in the countryside has become one of the few activities to be enjoyed during lockdown but dog owners must be responsible for their pet.

The NSA is committed to ensuring the general public develops a better understanding of the stress and suffering that any dog, no matter its breed, can cause to sheep by barking, chasing and attacking them. It is a serious animal welfare issue that puts both sheep and much loved pets at risk.

The two-week long campaign will include: social media activity; webinars; workshops; new online case studies; and content on the NSA website, to help both sheep farmers in reducing the risk of attacks happening on-farm, and the general public in preventing their dogs from being involved in sheep worrying attacks.

It is hoped that the campaign hashtag #LeadOn will be recognised as an encouragement to dog owners to be responsible, and act as an example to others by keeping their pets on leads in the presence of livestock.

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NSA ready to #LeadOn the fight against sheep worrying by dogs - Agriland.co.uk