Pat Harrington from Kielduff close to Tralee mentioned he was ‘completely dumbfounded’ to search out how the ‘huge black canine’ had returned after being chased off the hill, to kill their breeding ram.
‘He went again once more and killed the ram,’ Mr Harrington mentioned.
He and his 75-year-old father, Maurice, needed to take to the hill in the dead of night round supper time after being alerted to the canine attack on their sheep.
The ewe was so badly injured it was past assist and Pat needed to shoot her. He additionally shot on the canine and heard a yelp and believes the dogs should now be injured and ‘have lead in him’.
It was an enormous black canine with a collar.
‘Keep your dogs at bay,’ an emotional Mr Harrington pleaded on Radio Kerry this morning after posting on social media in regards to the extraordinarily upsetting incident. He is asking on native authorities to hold out door-to-door checks on dogs and to ensure dogs are safe at night time.
‘It is soul destroying,’ Mr Harrington mentioned of the attack and of discovering his ram being devoured by the canine. The ram’s throat was ‘ripped filter out.’
He fired and missed the canine, however the canine did yelp, so will need to have been hit.
‘I do not need to be taking pictures anybody’s household pet. It’s the very last thing I need to do, the very last item,’ he mentioned.
However, farmers had the fitting to shoot dogs even when they weren’t on their property and at a gate worrying sheep, he warned.
This is the latest of a number of assaults on sheep all through Kerry this yr. In April, in south Kerry close to Sneem, seventy sheep had been pushed into the ocean off a cliff by dogs. Many drowned. A lady was attacked by a canine on Inch seaside in September, different assaults on people in parks have additionally been reported and final month 25 pedigree ewes had been killed by dogs in west Kerry.
Pat Harrington is asking for necessary chipping of all dogs and for prosecutions of canine homeowners.
The canine in query had a collar, and he would acknowledge it if he noticed it once more, he felt.
He can also be calling for a fund to be arrange whereby all canine homeowners would pay a rise of 1 or two euro on their licence price and this is able to be used to compensate sheep farmers whose sheep are killed.
‘The individuals who have dogs aren’t listening,’ Pat Harrington mentioned. Adding he knew not all canine homeowners are like this. ‘I’m at an enormous loss over this and the person who owns this canine will get away with this as a result of I could not catch him,’ Pat had mentioned earlier on his Facebook web page .
‘This is a complete shame at today in age for this to be taking place. Our minister for agriculture must do extra,’ he additionally mentioned.
Local councillor Fionnán Fitzgerald shared photos of the savage attack and he has known as on canine homeowners to be extra accountable.
‘It is horrifying for the farmers and landowners within the space not understanding when or the place their animals are going to be attacked subsequent.
Farmers care and love their animals and it’s painful for them to witness such assaults. I’ll increase a movement on this on the subsequent council assembly – no matter about that canine homeowners have a accountability to make sure that dogs are underneath management always,’ Mr Fitzgerald (FF) mentioned.
‘I ask folks to contemplate farmer’s livelihoods and the overall security of individuals young and old. It can be horrifying to suppose {that a} small baby might endure one thing like this whereas out enjoying with ‘what Santa Brought”, the councillor mentioned.
