The National Sheep Association (NSA) has launched its 2020 survey to gather data and inform about its dog worrying campaign.

The Association says the issue is one of the biggest to affect their members and the survey can help them understand about what it is to be done.

NSA policy officer Ellie Phipps is hoping they can gather as much data as possible.

"Dog worrying is an issue that affects so many sheep farmers across the UK and is extremely demoralising and frustrating for people," she says. "In order to reinvigorate our work, we think it is important to have up to date information and data from those who are being impacted.

“The NSA works closely with a number of police forces and groups to help tackle dog worrying; however, there are still a number of forces around the country that don’t have dedicated rural crime officers, and these are the areas that people tend to have bad experiences with.

"The more data we have to work with, the more we can add pressure to these areas to ensure they treat dog worrying like the serious crime it is.”

NSA is continuing to call for the Home Office to make dog worrying a recordable crime and for the laws around dog worrying be tightened up to make prosecution easier.

Miss Phipps added: “Currently, there is no set definition of dog worrying for police to record it.

"Some may record an incident by each sheep affected (e.g. 30 sheep in one flock would be 30 cases) while others record one attack regardless of how many sheep (e.g. 30 sheep in one flock would be one case). Equally, the powers the police have when they do try to take action can be restricting.”

Any data collected as a part of this survey will help NSA’s position, to back up its calls for legal change.

It will also be used as part of NSA's 2020 dog worrying campaign – head to www.nationalsheep.org.uk