A pet dog has been shot dead by a farmer.

The farmer told police he shot two-year-old husky Newkey after finding two loose dogs worrying sheep.

The other dog ran off.

Farmers are legally entitled to shoot dogs on agricultural land if they are worrying farm animals.

Newkey’s owners Tara Milne and Louis Wytcherley said they were devastated.

Miss Milne said that Newkey escaped from the garden of Mr Wytcherley’s West Malvern Road home at about 8.30pm on Thurs-day, June 21.

The couple searched for her and called the RSPCA and dog warden to report her missing but discovered she was dead when police knocked on the door just after midnight.

The dog was shot in a field off Croft Bank, Malvern, but they collected Newkey’s body from nearby Croft Farm, owned by Chris Rouse.

They claim a farm worker told them no lamb was hurt and the dog was shot simply because it was on farm land.

Miss Milne said: “There was no reason to shoot that dog. I can’t understand how people can do this.

We’d fully take responsibility if the dog had attacked livestock but from what we’ve been told there was no livestock.”

Mr Wytcherley said the Rouse family had returned Newkey to him on two previous occasions after she had got loose on the Malvern Hills but he didn’t believe she worried sheep.

He said: “Nothing can bring her back but I want to know what happened.”Mr Rouse said although it was his sheep being worried, they were on land belonging to another farmer, who shot the dog and who he declined to identify.

He said: “There were two dogs there. They chased one dog away and the other one had pinned a lamb to the floor which they thought had been killed.

The people involved didn’t know whose the dog was.”

Mr Rouse said dog attacks were a problem, with two sheep killed by dogs in Malvern last year and a sheep injured last week in Castlemorton.

He said: “We [farmers] don’t intentionally shoot dogs. I’ve got dogs as well but people have got to be responsible for their animals.

It works both ways. I don’t like having to shoot sheep after they get chewed up by dogs either.”

A spokeswoman for West Mercia police said the dog was shot lawfully.

She said: “The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 is intended to prevent dogs terrorising and chasing farm animals.

“It makes it an offence for the owner of a dog to allow it to worry livestock on agricultural land, that includes attacking livestock, chasing livestock or being at large in a field where there are sheep.

“The Animals Act 1971 allows the killing or injuring of dogs worrying livestock by a person entitled to protect livestock.”

She said that no action would be taken against the dog’s owners.