A HEARTBROKEN family are calling for laws to change after their "loveable" pet dog was shot dead having escaped into a nearby farm.

Ryder the Doberman escaped from his pet sitter's home in Cadmore End, Lane End, High Wycombe, on Saturday, February 18.

He managed to jump over the six-foot tall garden fence before entering the chicken coop at Kensham Farms.

Hundreds of members of the community searched for missing Ryder that weekend with posters shared on social media in the hope of finding him. 

Ryder was in Cadmore End the whole time at the local farm.

The farm owner decided to have Ryder destroyed and later incinerated at West Wycombe Estate after he reportedly killed the chickens.

West Wycombe Estate confirmed their gamekeeper was called to assist the owner of the farm in shooting the pet dog.

Ryder was killed and the family were informed by police five days later (February 22) despite believing he was still alive and missing. 

A West Wycombe Estate spokesman said: "Contrary to popular belief, the dog was not put down because it was killing livestock, it was put down because it had attacked the owner of the farm causing him the break his wrist and fracture his hand and fingers which under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, makes this dog ‘dangerously out of control’.

"Thames Valley Police advised the Gamekeeper to dispose of the body. The decision to put down the dog was not made prior to this phone call, the decision was made after his arrival where the behaviour of the dog was deemed to be dangerous and there was a serious threat to life.

"We understand why people are angry about this situation, however, the bottom line is this: this dog has escaped on a number of occasions, it is quite obviously not being contained properly which has led to this incident occurring in the first place."

The family believe the police just took the farm owner's word on the situation without looking at any physical evidence of Ryder being dangerous.

They said his death could have been prevented if the laws were tighter on farm owners being allowed to kill dogs.

Rachael Collins said: "The law states it has to be a one-shot kill and that the dog is actively attacking, they just said that to police and police said okay that's fine.

"The difficulty of what we've got is it's not a lawful kill, we're not going to argue the value of a chicken's life. If we were talking about a livestock chicken coop, none of these conversations would be happening but they took it too far.

"The evidence they've provided is simply their word and in person, they said to us that Ryder was no longer actively looking for chickens and they locked him in there.

"He was stood still for long enough which is massive contrary to what was said on that post of him being aggressive and a threat to life." 

Ryder's family are hoping to set up a Change.org petition in the coming days to change the law around dogs being killed on farmland. 

Rachael added: "Being angry won't bring Ryder back but being calm and bringing about change is a lot more important to us than any blame.

"Making a change for other people is the only closure we can get. We couldn't bury him and they didn't give us his collars back or have his ashes or do anything when your pet passes away you would do, this is the only kind of form of closure."

The family wish Ryder to be remembered as the "loveable goofball" he was who wanted nothing more but love and attention.