A MAN has been fined and ordered to pay compensation to a farmer after his dog bit two lambs.

Ian Barnsley, of The Graftonbury Garden Hotel in Hereford, said the husky-type animal no longer lived with him, but he pleaded guilty last Thursday to two counts of owning a dog found to be worrying livestock.

The court was told the dog tore through a field behind Lower House Farm in Ewyas Harold on two occasions and, on the second, bit two lambs.

Prosecuting, Gemma Goode said the farmer had lost about £150 at market because the animals could not be sold.

She said the dog was first caught last July and traced to Barnsley, who then lived nearby. The sheep had been unhurt.

But in October it escaped again and when the farmer went to Barnsley’s house, he found the dog chained up with blood round its mouth.

Barnsley told police he was the owner and that the dog had been off its lead for about 10 minutes. In court, he said the dog now lived with his ex-partner in Cornwall.

Magistrates ordered him to pay £150 compensation, £110 in fines, a £15 surcharge and £100 court costs.