12197 Laws on keeping sheep

Could anyone give me some advice on the laws of keeping sheep.
We are about to be given 3 small lambs for the wool and milk, not for meat, and my husband has been fencing off a paddock and long strip of land, our neighbour has just called over the fence, saying, that it is not allowed, well, that's what we thought he said. His house next door is about 100 metres from us and is in the middle of an olive grove and we can just about see it. We will be doing all the regulations on worming etc. too. I do hope this isnt a big issue as we were so looking forward to it.

Category
Gardening & Agriculture

Hi - please can I tag this question on - maybe it is the same question?

Any knowledgeable views much appreciated.

Is there a minimum distance that livestock housing should be from a residential property. I believe there is law around this, and that it may vary depending on whether the property is in a borgo, the countryside or is independiente.

You probably do need to formally notify, via the comune, the local veterinary section of your local ASL. It isn't a big deal - they will require a plan of where the sheep are to be kept plus some other basic information, (and no doubt a marca di bollo at €14+). I'd go and have a word with the comune first to see what they require.

Make sure you make it clear you are keeping these sheep on the basis of 'allevamento amatoriale' or 'hobbistica' - obviously rules and regulations for commercial sheep farmers will be different. I haven't found anything about minimum distances!

If you have a friendly vet, he'll probably know all about the subject.

further to charles posting...it could be your neighbours cries of not allowed are to do with the fence ...not the animals that might be coming... its not allowed to put up fences unless its all been measured and approved... especially if it borders any other persons land... 5 metres is the distance from memory(or it could be 3 might be getting confused with buildings... or that could be trees and fences can be 1 meter ) so it has to be surveyed and measured and the lines set out by a geometra and registered and all that sort of thing...of course in agreement with the neighbour...otherwise he gets a geometra that measures it differently and then it takes aprox..20 years to sort it out...although meantime half the neighbours will be showing their back to you...or to him.... and once solved another 20 years or so to reconcile the differences and start saying hallo again... by then your Italian should be up to telling him where to go...and maybe it will all start again

if you have a hundred acres its quite legitimate to put up a fence well inside this area without hassle...

get someone with you...talk to the neighbour and find out first what his problem is ... and then follow his guidance over what will not cause him offence... is maybe the best way

That post made me laugh out loud Adriatica - mixed in with the advice - was a nice little vignette of life in Italy.

Thank you for your help, I dont think in 20 years we'll be able to tell our neighbour to get st--fed he is very old and may not be around, on the other hand neither may we, we are having a visit today from a friendly vet, and will keep you posted

Have just spoken to our vet and he has said, that all sheep, now, must be registered and be given a number. We think this may be a problem for us because we are not sure if our friends that are giving us the sheep, have registered the few sheep that they have, so that will cause them problems too . As for our neighbour, he is such a nosey old thing that he will probably ring the commune, just to see if we have everything in order. I suppose it is for the best to control disease, etc.

Vet is probably right. All our local dairy farmers calves have to be registered and numbered for the local agricultural agency, so it would probably apply to sheep as well now. Also, they have to have a minimumum area if fenced in. I know that our local farmer had to get extra land to conform with the regulations. Also if you have dogs in runs, there must be a minimum of 8 sq mtrs of area per dog.

used to read your book of adventures when i was young... still going on i see...

as for sheep...well one of the things is the problem of parasites...its bad enough here with dogs..however sheep do require dipping ... and the chemicals they use are very nasty... not good for humans or animals... so maybe it might well be for the best if you take a chicken option or indeed as most people here do ... rabbits...

more up your street maybe would be goats...better characters... slightly less sheepish although that's countered by their smell... however much cuter to my mind and the milk is just as good for cheese... etc....

just re-read your post...not as woolly as sheep..but there are varieties that do give some sort of hair type stuff... cannot remember the name.. i would still say joking aside though your main problem is with fencing...its a major dispute area here in Italy

Why not look at it another way and see your "nosey old neighbour" as your new best friend?. We have Mario who always knows best, but hes a great guy, showed us how to prune our olive trees, and has given us now too many cabbages to count. He is interested/bemused at times by our efforts, but has become a friend and a source of advice over the 4 years we have known him, I think it is so important to get on with your neighbours and this especially applies in a country where we are newcomers and a source of interest to Italians. And in small communities people do talk, and as everywhere, its best to try and make friends and connections, rather than alienate yourself.
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[quote=Angie and Robert;117498]Why not look at it another way and see your "nosey old neighbour" as your new best friend?. He is interested/bemused at times by our efforts, but has become a friend and a source of advice over the 4 years we have known him, I think it is so important to get on with your neighbours and this especially applies in a country where we are newcomers and a source of interest to Italians. And in small communities people do talk, and as everywhere, its best to try and make friends and connections, rather than alienate yourself.
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Couldn't agree more:yes:. Before we bought our house our farming neighbour Paolo had free range of the land and his animals lodged in the cantinas. With a lot of hard work on both sides he is now our 'new best friend' and is actually doing the fencing for us as we speak. I shudder to think what might have happened if things had gone the other way.
It is facinating that the locals are hugely interested in everything we're doing (perhaps ever since MOH, when her Italian wasn't so good, told them that we still had lots of 'washing' to do at the house!) but at the same time hugely supportive. We've made more friends in Italy in 3 years than we have in the village we live in in England in 20:wideeyed:!

Apart from the legal position, you should know that while the lambs will eventually grow wool, they won't give any milk until certain processes have been gone through!

Dear Janet and John how nice to hear about your new Italian venture which the nice Mr Wogan has not even mentioned yet. I do hope your beard, velvet loon pants and magenta waistcoat has not upset your vicino more than the problematic livestock. If so, do you recognise an irate Italian with a pichfork, Janet does!
Without descending in to double-entendre square things with the local commune and enter in to the spirit of the law without worrying too much about the length of the eyelashes of the said sheep, about which the Italians probably have a law.