Dog poo warning after 'spike' in cow deaths

Dog owners are being urged to pick up their pets' waste after cow deaths in Surrey were thought to be linked to eating faeces.

Chloe Fowles, who farms cattle near Staines, told BBC Radio Surrey she has lost six of her herd this season to the infectious disease neosporosis.

Infection also causes miscarriages in pregnant cows and leaves them unable to breed again.

Ms Fowles called for dog walkers to "be vigilant, responsible, and pick up the dog toilet".

She added: "When dogs go to the toilet in the field and it's not picked up, the cows are grazing the land and they can ingest it accidentally.

"It's not intentional but it happens."

Losing animals is "a big hit to the business", Ms Fowles said, and "there seems to be a big spike in it this year".

Farmers on the National Trust's Runnymede and Ankerwycke estates, including Ms Fowles, have lost "a number of calves" as a result of the disease, according to lead ranger Jamie Preston.

He said: "We urgently need to protect all the cattle and asking visitors that walk across our properties to act responsibly and not leave dog waste in the fields."

Surrey Wildlife Trust made a public appeal for dog owners to clean up after their pets in February over concerns about the disease, which the charity said it had seen "twice already in the spring 2025 calving period".

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