A DOG behaviourist who specialises in 'aggressive' breeds has admitted to being the owner of two Rottweilers which killed and injured a number of lambs at a farm near Leominster.

Judge Abbas Mithani told Charles Ross-Robertson, of Stanton Lacy, near Ludlow, that a custodial sentence would not be out of the question after the 64-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of being the owner/person in charge of a dog being dangerously out of control in a public place at Hereford Crown Court last week.

Armed police were called in after the two dogs caused carnage on a farm in Risbury in September last year. More than 35 lambs were killed or injured in the attack, while others remained missing.

It prompted police and the young farmer left devastated after the attack on his flock to urge dog owners of the appalling toll pets can wreak on livestock.

Tom Hadley, who was renting the land, believed the incident would have cost him thousands of pounds and would have been responsible for losing a breeding line.

Mr Hadley was alerted to the attack by neighbours and had to travel from the other side of Worcester, where he was working, to get to the site.

“I found two dogs in the field eating one of the lambs. There were dead and injured lambs

everywhere. It was carnage,” he said.

The court heard Ross-Robertson was currently subject to a community order, having been convicted of drink-driving – an offence carried out on the same day as the attack.

He was warned by Judge Mithani that custody was an option the court had and may exercise in this case. The judge said it had to be a matter of 'grave concern' that if the dogs were let loose or not supervised properly they could have done very serious harm to a member of the public.

The court heard that the Crown Prosecution Service intended to apply for an order to destroy the dogs, which were seized by police following the incident.

A charge of being in possession of an offensive weapon in a public place will lie on file while a charge of being the owner of a dog worrying livestock was withdrawn.

Ross-Robertson will be sentenced on March 14.