Farmer loses 14 sheep to dog attack

A farmer near Kingscourt is warning dog owners to be wary of the threat their pets pose sheep as she comes to terms with a savage attach on her flock.

The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lost 14 sheep to the attack in late March. Due to the wet weather most of her sheep were in sheds, but she had 15 replacement hoggets in a nearby field.

The hogget that survived had hidden in a large drainage pipe.

“The rest weren’t as lucky,” begins the woman.

Her first indication there had been an attack was when she spotted a trio lying on their backs. “Two were dead, one was upside down with the blood spewing out of her, and her taking her last breath.”

The remaining dozen had fled the field in a panicked attempt to evade the dogs.

“They were in neighbours’ fields, they were hanging off barbed wire, they were in gripes, in ditches,” she recalls.

The farmer was deeply upset on finding the sheep - some purebred Texels - savaged.

“When you see such carnage. If you had seen the sheep, how far they had gone to try to get a way from the dogs and had been dragged and pulled and attacked - it was just horrendous.”

Given the saturated ground conditions she and her family had to use a quad to search and bring the dead and injured animals back to the farm one by one. The grim recovery exercise took approximately three hours.

“It was a morning I’ll ever forget,” she remarked.

She adds: “The poor sheep had tried to jump wire and had hung themselves on the wire. Horrendous. And some of them were still alive which was even worse. We had to get them put down, they were ripped apart.”

The day the Celt speaks to the farmer she explains she is bringing the surviving animal to the factory because it hasn’t recovered from the trauma of the incident.

“You can’t go into the shed with her. If she sees the door open, she’ll try to jump out. I tried to calm her down and to feed her up, but there’s no helping her.”

She has incurred costs from the vet called to euthanise the suffering animals, and the dead animal collection lorry which charges per head of animal, and she also has to repair fences.

The farmer works on a ‘closed flock’ where she reared replacement hoggets to produce future lambs. This reduces the risk of introducing diseases into the flock from other farms. This attack wiped out all of her replacement hoggets.

“I have no replacement hoggets to come on for next year. It will impact me for years - not just now.”

By contacting local farmers she heard of five other dog attacks on sheep in an area spanning from Shercock to Muff in the period of December to the end of March; one attack occurring only a few farms away from her own.

“I think the farming community need to talk to each other - to communicate: ‘This is happening in the area, you watch out for your sheep tonight’.”

She was in her shed tending to ewes lambing when the attack occurred at her farm in a nearby field.

Had she known there had been other attacks in the locality she insists she would have taken more precautions; kept the hoggets even closer to home and carried out night time checks.

She believes many attacks don’t get reported. Farmers will instead say nothing and will await the dogs’ return to shoot them.

The farmer insists the dogs are only doing what comes natural to them, and it’s the owner who must not let their dogs roam free at night.

“It was terrible to think someone’s family dog could do this to such innocence; the poor sheep were so innocent.

“Really is that what you want to come home to your house, and home to your child - a dog that’s after doing such damage.”

On Monday Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys launched a new awareness campaign which echoes the Kingscourt farmer’s comments. It has the tagline: ‘If your dog attacks, it’s not your dog’s fault. It’s yours.’

“Dog owners must make sure their dog is under control at all times, not running wild endangering people, livestock or other dogs,” said Minister Humphreys. “I want this campaign to make people think twice about letting their dog loose and uncontrolled.”

This campaign is the latest in a series of related initiatives including increases in on-the-spot fines up to €300 and an additional €2 million to support dog pounds.

Another recent development was the establishment in March of the Dog Control Stakeholder Group, chaired by retired Deputy Garda Commissioner, John Twomey. The group includes a broad range of sectoral interests and experts and has been tasked with reviewing existing policy in relation to dog control and breeding establishments.

“The campaign being launched today is an important step and just the beginning of a number of measures we need to introduce to reduce attacks by uncontrolled dogs,” said John Twomey.