DOG walkers are being urged to keep their pets under control after a lamb was savaged to death.

The weeks-old lamb, belonging to Otley farmer David Lawson of Russell's Farm, was killed in an apparently frenzied attack sometime on Friday last week.

Its mother was also attacked and has been left with a severely damaged leg, but its twin escaped unhurt.

Mr Lawson, who has 27 sheep at his Leeds Road farm, all with two lambs, said the sheep were grazing in a field without a footpath but close to public rights of way through the Danefield Estate.

Mr Lawson, who discovered the carnage on Saturday morning, checks his animals twice every day when he feeds them, but was later than usual on Friday and missed the dead lamb because it was dark.

He believes a dog will have jumped over the wall into the sheep field and chased the lamb probably out of fun.

"It is a dog's natural instinct to run and play and this is probably what would have happened.

"It would have chased after the lamb and because the lamb was young and couldn't get away, it ended up dead.

"The dog would have then returned to its owner and unless it had wool hanging out of its mouth and was covered in blood, the owner might not have realised anything had happened."

Mr Lawson, who checks his sheep twice every day when he feeds them, believes the dog would have been a large one which would not necessarily kill again.

But he is appealing to dog owners walking their animals in the park to keep them on leads while the lambs are still young and vulnerable.

Four years ago, following a similar incident, he got Leeds City Council to put up signs on the estate warning people about the close proximity of lambs.

He has contacted the council again and hopes the signs will return.

"The problem is time. With Easter coming up a lot of people will be coming out with their families and they're often keeping an eye on their children and not what their dogs are up to," he said.

Meanwhile, although he does not carry a gun, he said he would have no hesitation in killing a dog he caught in one of his fields chasing after the sheep.

"If I saw a dog just running around in the field I would get it out, but if I did have a gun and I saw it killing one of my sheep I would have no hesitation."

A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council's Parks and Countryside Department confirmed that a request had been made for signs and added that it would be dealt with as soon as possible.