Anger as farmer loses 50 sheep in horror dog attack

The Moneygall farmer at the centre of a €10,000 financial loss after 50 of his sheep were killed in a savage weekend dog attack has said “the law suits the criminal”.

John Healy, who is still coming to terms with the attack in which he lost almost half of his flock, has called for dog wardens to be armed with the latest scanning technology to identify out of control dangerous dog breeds.

“The Department of Agriculture come out to my farm and scan all my sheep in a matter of minutes and they know exactly the status of each animal, so why can’t the same be done with dogs?” he asked.

Mr Healy, who lives just outside the village of Moneygall on the Offaly/Tipperary border, said Gardaí “do not have the powers” to deal with dangerous dogs, and yet Offaly has just one dog warden to cover the entire county.

“Dog wardens don’t go out to rural areas, so the small minority of irresponsible dog owners in the countryside know full well that there are no real sanctions if their dog stages an attack,” John Healy told the Offaly Independent this week.

While he is devastated at the weekend attack which has decimated his sheep flock, Mr Healy said he counts himself as “one of the lucky ones” as at least the attack took place “outside his door” unlike the family in Wexford whose 9-year old son was seriously injured some weeks ago when he was attacked by a dog while out playing with his friends in a local park.

Speaking in the wake of the devastating sheep kill, the Offaly IFA Chairman, Pat Walsh, stated that dog owners who are not prepared to look after their dogs in a responsible manner should either “surrender them or have them euthanised”.

Describing the sheep kill in Moneygall, and a second sheep kill in county Kildare, as “sickening and deeply distressing”, Mr Walsh said there was “a huge surge” in dog ownership during the Covid lockdowns and now that people have returned to “a level of normality”, these dogs have become “secondary” to the lives of many pet owners and are being allowed to roam around both urban and rural areas.

“Dog ownership brings responsibility and, in this case, the dog or dogs who carried out this attack need to be put down as they now have a taste for blood and they will attack again,” said Mr Walsh.

The IFA Chairman made a strong appeal for the owner of the dogs involved in the Moneygall sheep attack to “come forward as soon as possible” and added that the owner of any dog that has killed another animal “needs to take the final step and have it euthanised” to prevent the dog from killing again.

He also called for tougher dog control laws to be implemented, particularly in the area of trespass on land or onto other people’s property. “We can’t have a situation where people have no control whatsoever over their dogs and allow them to just roam and wander anywhere they like,” said the IFA leader.

The Offaly Chairman of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), William Reid, also condemned the Moneygall sheep attack and said gardai “do not have enough powers” to intervene in such incidents. He also joined in the calls made by the IFA for tougher legislation to be implemented around the whole area of dog ownership and control.

Local Independent TD, Carol Nolan, has also called for “swift and harsh penalties” to be imposed on the owners of any dogs who destroy farm animals, and described the Moneygall sheep attack as “an act of pure savagery by vicious, uncontrolled dogs”.

Deputy Nolan said she will be engaging with the relevant Ministers to ensure that “we can get a grip on this issue once and for all and that the message goes out that such barbarity will no longer be tolerated through weak enforcement of our laws”.

Meanwhile, An Garda Siochána in Laois/Offaly joined with the IFA and the ICSA in issuing a Facebook appeal over the weekend to dog owners to keep their dogs “under effectual control.” They advised dog owners to secure their dogs, have them microchipped and also to have them registered.

“We continue to see issues with sheep kills when dogs attack livestock. Dogs should not be allowed to roam. We regularly see community groups alerting each other about dogs missing or roaming. Please keep your family pet under effectual control,” said the Garda post.

At the time of going to press, Gardaí in Roscrea have confirmed that they are continuing to investigate all the circumstances around the weekend incident in Moneygall which resulted in 50 sheep being killed.