A farmer whose gates have been left open and fences cut in a series of incidents has been shocked by the number of others who have contacted him telling of similar experiences.

Thomase Cleator, who breeds pedigree Dorset sheep in Jurby says: ’It’s happened a couple of times since the end of February.

’It started with tups being let out through opened gates. Thankfully they are so quiet it wasn’t hard to get them back.

’Then the ewes were let into the field with the tups. So we had fathers and brothers in with daughters and sisters.

’Again thankfully, because the tups are so quiet, we managed get them out pretty quickly.’

The final straw was finding sheep had been let out again, this time into an area where there are daffodils and other poisonous plants.

Thomase believes these are deliberate acts, rather than just careless dog walkers, and that he is being targeted. He says: ’There are no rights of way through the field where the gates are being opened.

’It’s a small field, just three acres not really a size for walking dogs in.’

He is especially upset because the animals affected by these incidents were his some of his best breeding stock with their progeny intended to be sold for breeding next year.

These incidents have come at a time when more people than usual are using the Manx countryside to get out and about during lockdown and, following Thomase’s Facebook post, a number of his farming friends told him of similarly shocking experiences.

He says: ’I’ve had friends saying that people have taken electric fences down to walk across fields.

’One of them told me that [dog walkers] couldn’t be bothered to use a stile, or lift their dog over the stile, so they cut a hole in the pig wire fence instead.’

Thomase has reported the matter to the police. He says: ’They advised us to put locks on the gates but we were already onto that.’

The police also spoke to people in the area and posted a warning on Facebook. It read: ’We all love having a ramble and getting out and about in the countryside, particularly with the weather being as nice as it is at the moment.

’On your travels, please try to bear in mind other users of the countryside and the land that we enjoy.

’Please don’t enter private fields or land and ensure that, if you do need to open a closed gate for whatever reason, that you take the time to make sure it is closed properly when you move on.

’Livestock escaping from their allotted field can have numerous knock-on effects, many not being at first apparent, and can very quickly result in unnecessary suffering or harm coming to those animals’

’Hopefully now these people have got the message,’ says Thomase.