The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Act 2025 has received Royal Assent which makes it law, it will update the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act from 1953.
The new legislation will come into effect on Wednesday 18 March 2026 and applied to England and Wales.
The act:
- is worded so that attacking livestock is treated separately from worrying livestock. This reframing helps make the violent nature of livestock attacks much clearer. It doesn’t create a new offence as both behaviours are already covered in the 1953 act, but it does make the distinction explicit
- extends the law to cover livestock worrying and attacks that take place on roads and paths
- includes camelids (as llamas and alpacas are commonly farmed)
- introduces a new defence for dog owners to exempt them from liability where the dog was in the charge of another person at the time of the offence without the owner’s consent, for instance if the dog was stolen
- introduces new powers allowing a court to order an offender to pay expenses associated with seizing and detaining a dog
- provides a clear deterrent by increasing the penalty from a fine of up to £1,000 to an unlimited fine
In addition, the law gives police new and improved powers to improve their investigations, including:
- the power to seize and detain a dog where they have reasonable grounds to believe there is a risk that the dog could attack or worry livestock again. The dog can be detained until an investigation has been carried out or, if proceedings are brought for an offence, until those proceedings have been determined or withdrawn
- the power to take samples and impressions from a dog or livestock where the police have reasonable grounds to believe the dog has attacked or worried the livestock, and that a sample or impression might provide evidence of an offence. The sample or impression could then be used as evidence to support a prosecution
- the powers to enter and search premises to identify, seize and detain a dog for the prevention of future incidents, to collect samples or impressions, or seize any other evidence
