Plea to dog owners after latest sheepkill
NORTH LOUTH FARMERS UNDER SIEGE
AN urgent plea to dog owners to keep their pets under control has been made in the wake of the attacks which resulted in twenty-three sheep being killed in two separate incidents.
This brings to over 40 the number of sheep killed in Louth in the past two and a half months.
Sheep farmers ‘are under siege,’ from dogs who are attacking their flocks according to Matthew Mc Greehan, chairman of the Louth IFA Rural development.
With lambing season imminent, marauding dogs can cause devastation to a flock, as traumatised ewes can abort or give birth to stillborn lambs.
North Louth sheep farmer Padraig Rice, who lost three ewes in an attack last Thursday, is appealing to dog owners to keep their pets locked up and under control.
‘I don’t blame the dogs - it’s their nature to hunt. But the owners have to take responsibility. There is no way these dogs are going home without being covered in blood.’
He appealed to anyone with information about dogs running loose to inform Louth County Council’s dog warden or Gardai.
Padraig make the shocking discovery that his flock had been attacked when he went to feed his sheep on lands at Ballymascanlon last Thursday.
He describes how the dogs had bitten the ewes’ necks, faces and ears, and two ewes also had broken legs. On counting the sheep, he realised that ten ewes were missing and after three hours of searching, found them in nearby drains and ditches, where they had got stuck after trying to escape from the dogs. Two of these ewes were dead, and another one died of her injuries the following morning. Another ewe aborted twin lambs and Padraig fears there will be further losses as all the ewes were heavily pregnant.
Another farmer lost 19 sheep in a separate dog attack last week.
‘Dog owners should understand that running free their dog can be a killer,’ said Matthew McGreehan.
He added that it may come to having to ask the dog wardens to take stray dogs off the streets, as ‘if not under effective control the dog warden can take action, to prevent attacks on sheep.’
Cllr Antóin Watters has backed calls to raise awareness among dog owners, saying: ‘ the sheep are heavy in lamb now at the minute and any of these things at all are detrimental to a flock. In farming livelihoods the margins are thinning up and if you are losing lambs it takes a lot of money to make it up and this has a big effect on them.’
He said Louth County Council has issued fixed penalty notices to owners under the Control of Dogs Act and has euthanised a number of dogs that were caught.
‘I want to raise awareness about it because people do not realise the damage a dog can do, it is a family pet but whenever it gets out and into a flock of sheep it turns into a different animal altogether,’ Cllr Watters added.