Full disclosure.

I had a dog which was shot and killed by a farmer.

I'm going back some 50 years and Sheba was a family pet, a beautiful German Shepherd, and as the eldest child it fell to me to look after her, train her, feed her and most importantly exercise her, usually by taking her for long walks.

It was during one of those weekend walks, off the leash, because I was confident she would always come back when I called her, and anyway she was friendly enough if we did encounter fellow walkers or other dogs on the quiet lanes – right?

No, unusually for her Sheba did not come back after a short while foraging and sniffing in the hedgerows and ditches, nor did she respond to my calls, which became more and more frantic.

I went home worried about her, and what would happen to me by my strictest of dads, when I told them what an idiot I had been. I was sent out to look for again but had been banished to my room when the home phone rang and the dreaded call came.

It was a farmer and he had shot Sheba dead because she was worrying his sheep in a field almost a mile from when I had last seen her. He identified her from her name tag details.

I was distraught, the wave of guilt drowned me, the gut-wrenching feeling of grief left me inconsolable. That potent mix of despair left me totally bereft for days, weeks, - even now I'm feeling emotional recalling all this. My mum kept me off school for two days because I could not stop sobbing – never had I felt so wretched before.

It was all my own fault, not Sheba's – she was doing what alsations do instinctively. Not the farmer – he was rightly protecting his sheep – it was all down to me. We lived on an estate in a rural village, I knew the rules, and the Country Code, so no excuses.

I missed Sheba, the whole family did but we eventually got another dog, Jan, another German Shepherd and I held on to that lead like my life depended on it, never mind hers, except in very special, strictly controlled spaces and circumstances.

So please – heed the warning that farmers will kill dogs, legitimately, to protect their flock and I would not want any other person to feel the way I did when Sheba was shot.

Read: Farmer Warns He Will Shoot Dogs by hitting the red button below, or going to the news page.