Pat Harrington from Kielduff close to Tralee stated he was ‘completely dumbfounded’ to search out how the ‘massive 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 stated.
He and his 75-year-old father, Maurice, needed to take to the hill at midnight 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 a giant 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 looking on native authorities to hold out door-to-door checks on dogs and to verify dogs are safe at evening.
‘It is soul destroying,’ Mr Harrington stated of the attack and of discovering his ram being devoured by the canine. The ram’s throat was ‘ripped filter.’
He fired and missed the canine, however the canine did yelp, so should have been hit.
‘I do not wish to be capturing anybody’s household pet. It’s the very last thing I wish to do, the very very last thing,’ he stated.
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 12 months. In April, in south Kerry close to Sneem, seventy sheep had been pushed into the ocean off a cliff by dogs. Many drowned. A woman 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 looking for necessary chipping of all dogs and for prosecutions of canine house owners.
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 house owners would pay a rise of 1 or two euro on their licence payment and this could be used to compensate sheep farmers whose sheep are killed.
‘The individuals who have dogs are usually not listening,’ Pat Harrington stated. Adding he knew not all canine house owners are like this. ‘I’m at a giant 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 stated 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 stated.
Local councillor Fionnán Fitzgerald shared footage of the savage attack and he has referred to as on canine house owners to be extra accountable.
‘It is horrifying for the farmers and landowners within the space not figuring out 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 elevate a movement on this on the subsequent council assembly – no matter about that canine house owners have a duty to make sure that dogs are below management always,’ Mr Fitzgerald (FF) stated.
‘I ask individuals to contemplate farmer’s livelihoods and the final security of individuals young and old. It could be horrifying to suppose {that a} small baby might endure one thing like this whereas out enjoying with ‘what Santa Brought”, the councillor stated.
