John Healy, 47, a sheep farmer from Moneygall, Co Offaly, was left ‘deeply shaken’ following the death of his livestock over Friday night and Saturday morning and fears the loss will set him back up to €10,000.
‘It’s just devastating,’ he told the Irish Daily Mail.
‘My suspicion is that these were no ordinary dogs.
‘Every single sheep was caught by the throat, which is the pure instinct of a killer dog. I’m not a squeamish person, but this has really affected me, along with my neighbours who are now very concerned for their own sheep.’
The grim discovery was made by Mr Healy’s teenage sons after they were informed that a sheep had fled into their grandmother’s garden, near their land.
‘I rang my sons and I asked them to go up to see if there was something wrong because the field is sheep proof,’ Mr Healy said.
‘I sent up the boys and they rang me crying on the phone saying there is dead sheep everywhere. They were dead on the lane. They were dead in the field. Then [his son] Cathal saw the dogs.
‘I told him to go after them to see where they go.
‘He got within 30 yards of one dog. A big black sort of heavy built dog. The other dog ran away and I was heading home at this stage.’
Speaking to Fran Curry on the Tipp Today show on Tipp FM, Mr Healy added that he never wants to see what he witnessed again.
‘There were dead lambs everywhere. There were 120 lambs in the field and there’s 50 of them dead’ he said.
‘The dogs killed for sport – there was none of them eaten or torn asunder. They were just caught by the throat and killed.
‘There was 11 lambs corralled into a corner and obviously one dog held them in the corner while the other one killed because they were in a pile in the corner all caught by the throat and killed.’
Mr Healy has called on pet owners to take responsibility for their dogs. ‘The dogs responsible for this attack would have went home, absolutely exhausted and covered in blood,’ he said.
‘Their owners have to know what happened.
‘My plea to them would be to put them down, which is not something I would say lightly.
‘These animals now have a taste for blood and will seek out other sheep somewhere else or heavens forbid children they come into contact with. If you want to own sheep, you have to register with the Department of Agriculture, assign them with ear tags and be able to track them at all times.
‘I think the same should be done with dogs so to prevent these type of incidents happening.’
Irish Farmers’ Association sheep committee chairman Kevin Comiskey said that 20 lambs were attacked by dogs in Co Kildare in another incident in recent days.
‘It’s simply not good enough for dogs to be allowed to roam free and cause the level of damage that took place in recent days. We need stronger regulation around dog ownership,’ he said.
Mr Comiskey led a delegation to meet ministers Heather Humphreys and Charlie McConalogue this year when they put forward measures to curb dog attacks.
However, the IFA said: ‘There had been what seemed constructive discussions with Minister Humphreys and Minister McConalogue back in May, but we haven’t seen enough action since.’
The IFA is calling for a single national database for all dogs in the country that identifies the person responsible for the dog.
It also wants tougher sanctions for those who fail to have their dog under control at all times, and for those whose dogs are identified worrying/attacking livestock.
Mr McConalogue was scheduled to meet with the IFA on Tuesday night.
