A farmer is calling for a system to ensure key workers on their way to an emergency are not held up by police spot checks.

Jenny Shepherd, of Manx Loaghtan Produce in Patrick, believes police officers were ’heavy-handed’ in their treatment of a vet who was stopped by police while on an emergency call-out to her farm.

She said: ’I have no problem with the police stopping people and I’m all for supporting them in trying to keep people indoors to prevent the virus from spreading, but there are people who legitimately need to be out.’

At about 11.30pm on Sunday night, she contacted her vet as one of her loaghtan ewes at Ballacosnahan farm was having difficulty giving birth to twins.

On their way to the emergency, the vets were stopped by the police who she claimed had insisted on breathalysing the driver.

She said: ’I was shocked.

’I’ve no problem with the police stopping them but surely they should have been sent quickly on their way? Did they not believe they were a vet? They only had to look in the boot of the car full of vet equipment.’

She added: ’They held them up for a good half-hour. It was just a horrible night and it did shock me that the police were so heavy-handed.

’When I’ve got a ewe in so much distress, every minute feels like an hour and you’re willing for the headlights to come up the drive.’

Jenny said they lost the two lambs but accepted they wouldn’t have been saved whether the vet had been delayed or not. The ewe died later that morning.

She added that she doesn’t want to ’obstruct the police’, but wonders if a letter of permission could be created for all farmers and critical workers caring after their livestock.

As the issue of coronavirus is fast-moving, she understands that ’not everything has been thought through’, but believes her incident highlights a problem.

The police have since been in contact to help the farmer.

A police spokesman said: ’Vulnerable people need to be looked after and animals cared for and this absolutely must happen. The emergency workers, key workers and volunteers doing this must be supported.

’Social isolation is vitally important to stop the spread of the virus as the risk to lives is significant.

’We have asked the public to keep essential journeys to the minimum distance required for their purpose.

’This is to keep traffic down on the roads and reduce potential demand on our health service.

’These issues mean we do need to stop vehicles to check they are following the rules but must allow emergency and key workers to carry on with their journeys as soon as possible.

’The officers involved in this were doing their roles in an effort to stop the spread of the virus and keep people safe. It is very sad that the animal was not well and later died and we have personally spoken to Jenny Shepherd about this.’

The Manx National Farmers’ Union said it is happy enough that those who are carrying out genuine farming activity or livestock husbandry activity are ’able to explain to the police what they are doing in a very few words without the need for a piece of paper’.

A spokesman said: ’Even with a piece of paper the police would still stop them so we see no real need or benefit.

’The issue Jenny Shepherd’s vet encountered does sound out-of-the-ordinary when compared to other feedback we have had and I would hope it was a one-off or perhaps the police had good reason to act in that manner, a reason that we are not aware of. We can’t comment further.’