@WriterHannahBT Lots of house sparrows in my garden, a couple of blackbirds and their fledgling and some wood pigeons, then the swifts go screaming over. I have learnt thanks to you and Clarksons farm using the merlin app 😊
This guy has a social media account thatdogtoyguy and he goes around giving new toys to people out with their dogs. 🐕
I think that is a wonderful idea, don’t you?
I'm sorry for this one - you think you've heard it all, think again.
A disgusting paedophile masqueraded as a dog walker so he could film himself raping an elderly dog
Luke Wilson, 20, from St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire, sexually attacked a dog he “clicked” with.
Wilson admitted carrying out an “utterly despicable” sex attack on a 15-year-old female Staffy cross he was walking for a stranger.
Prosecutor David Rogers told the court that in April 2025, Wilson had replied to an online advertisement seeking someone to walk two dogs, Betty and Iffie.
On 25 April Wilson arrived at their owner’s address to pick up the dogs and was advised that, due to Iffie’s age, she should not be walked for longer than an hour.
When Wilson had not returned with the dogs after two hours, the owner became concerned.
At 7pm, Wilson texted the worried woman.
The text stated: “I know this is going to sound stupid but is there any chance I can look after Iffie for a day or two as me and her have really clicked.”
Thinking this was strange, the owner told Wilson he could not keep the dogs, and offered to fetch them.
But Wilson replied that he was going to give Iffie a shower, which alarmed the woman.
She travelled to St Cyrus, where she met Wilson with her dogs on the side of a main road.
Iffie was soaking wet and shivering, and Betty “looked anxious”, Mr Rogers told the court.
When the dogs’ owner returned home, she noticed blood running down Iffie’s hind legs. She was whimpering and crying while attempting to relieve herself.
The woman quizzed Wilson, who stated that the dog had “yelped once” while going to urinate and that he thought she had “sat on a stick”.
Two days later, Wilson messaged the woman to ask if he could walk the dogs again, but she refused.
After examining Iffie, a vet advised the owner to contact the police.
On April 29, police executed a search warrant at Wilson’s address, where they found videos and images of Iffie on his phone.
The disturbing content was of a sexual nature and extremely violent.
During police interview, Wilson admitted to committing various sexual acts on the dog, most of which are too shocking to document.
Examination of Wilson’s phone uncovered footage of him with a second, unidentified dog with short dark ginger hair.
Officers also found evidence that Wilson had been chatting to what he believed was a 10-year-old girl online, who had sent various child sexual abuse material in exchange for money.
There was also a reference made to another charge from 2024 of Wilson being in possession of dozens of indecent images and videos of children.
Some of the children featured were toddlers and newborn babies.
Police also found videos of bestiality on Wilson’s mobile phone.
Wilson pleaded guilty to two counts of having an unnatural connection with a dog and another charge of causing a dog unnecessary suffering.
He also admitted possessing indecent images of children and another charge of downloading child abuse material.
He also pleaded guilty to one charge of communicating indecently with a child and requesting sexual images.
He was sentenced to four-years with half to be served behind bars and half on licence.
A six-year sexual harm prevention order was put in place and he was banned from keeping animals for six years.
In the grounds of Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, behind a wall built in 1270, there is a herd of wild cattle.
They have been there, in that specific park, for approximately 700 years.
They are white. Small. Horned. They look vaguely like the cattle on a medieval tapestry, which is roughly what they are. The Chillingham herd is the last surviving population of genuinely wild cattle in Britain, and genetically the closest living relative of the aurochs, the wild ancestor of every domestic cow on earth.
When the estate was enclosed in the 13th century, a group of cattle was trapped inside the wall. Nobody moved them. Nobody bred them with outside stock. Nobody managed them. The wall went up, the cattle kept being cattle, and the door, essentially, was never opened again.
Seven centuries later, they are still there.
No selective breeding. No herd improvement programme. No artificial insemination. No supplementary feed beyond what the park produces. They eat the grass. They calve unassisted. The bull fights for dominance. The old are taken by winter. The young grow up in a social structure nobody taught them.
They have the lowest genetic diversity of any mammal on earth that isn't officially endangered. By every textbook in conservation genetics, they should have collapsed a dozen times over from inbreeding depression.
They have not. They are, by veterinary standards, extraordinarily healthy. Disease resistance better than modern breeds. Fertility steady. Calving success high. They carry on regardless.
What can be learned from Chillingham.
The first is that a cattle population, left alone on land suited to them, finds its own equilibrium. No committee is required. No spreadsheet. No grass-measuring device. The cattle work it out. They have worked it out for 700 years.
The second is that the park itself is a functioning ecosystem, maintained by those cattle. The wildflowers, the ancient oaks, the soil structure, the bird populations, are all shaped by continuous low-intensity grazing by a small wild herd. It is one of the most biodiverse small landscapes in England.
The third, and most inconvenient to the modern argument, is that cattle and wild land are not in conflict. The Chillingham herd is wild cattle, on wild land, in steady state, for longer than most European countries have existed in their current form.
They are a living contradiction to almost every modern claim made about bovines and ecosystems.
They are not on anybody's emissions chart.
They have never been invited to a conference.
They are behind their wall, in Northumberland, quietly doing what cattle have been doing since before the Norman Conquest.
They will probably still be doing it when the current debate has been forgotten.
@croucher_tiger@benjaminbutter You should come meet my mum Benjamin. She gets a basic state pension with pension credit. She gets help to pay the interest on her mortgage but this is a loan and has to be paid back when she sells or dies, she is single so no help from a partner. Lots of OAP's are on £12,500.