Dog attacks on livestock

[KHD]

Another brutal dog attack on sheep, this time in Moneygall. Must be an awful thing for anyone to come out and have to face this level of carnage. Bearing in mind some of these sheep would have been still alive in a very distressing state.

https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2022/12 ... all-sheep/

[Setanta]

Rough work,

really it's owners who should be put-down aswell.... if they are unwilling or unable to control.their pets, shouldn't be allowed have em

Near impossible to get compensation in the above scenario here

[quodec]

Happened my father's flock back in the day. Lost half the ewes, all of them pregnant. Two dogs, local to us but no one owned up. My father sold up and never had sheep again. Horrible experience.

[Hairy-Joe]

I remember years ago walking along the paths along the Shannon close to Portumna. I came across a local clearing up after such an attack. It was the second attack and they asked if I saw any dogs. The farmer had the shotgun in the Jeep ready. The look of shock on the farmers face said it all....

[knownunknown]

One attack? Good god didn’t know they were capable of that.

[BrianD3]

Dog owners with a casual attitude to letting their pets roam madden me. At least 50% of the posts on the facebook community page for my area relate to lost/found dogs with some dogs escaping on more than one occasion. This is in an area where there are farms and sheep well within roaming range.

As usual in Ireland, there are laws in place but they are poorly enforced due to ineptitude and underresourcing of public bodies tasked with doing so.

The below ad was a powerful one in the 1980s and scared me as a kid, made me wary of dogs (all breeds) for life. I think it would have much less impact today as people don't give a crap, only way to get them to do anything is hammer them in the pocket for damages, trauma, loss of income etc., Will this happen to the owners responsible for the dog attack in Offaly, unlikely.

[nlgbbbblth]

I don't care much for dogs (was bitten in an unprovoked attack many years ago). This doesn't surprise me.

You have the usual hand-wringers saying "it's not the dogs' fault"

It is.

How can dog owners defend this behaviour?

[KHD]

It's really hard to figure out how to solve this problem. It's mostly down to the owners not the dog. My own view on this is that you should know where your dog is at all times, that if you have a garden where the dog runs around, it should be fenced off properly so they can't go wandering into other people's properties causing a nuisance. They should also be thought a level of discipline, a dog is not a fooking human being. Its like the horses i dealt with today, they are animals, they may look like harmless fluffy creatures but the will give you serious injuries if you do not watch yourself around them.. My dogs will only go within the boundaries of my garden. They will not enter fields, but I make sure if they are outside I keep an eye on them. I won't shut the door and leave them to their own devices all night.

I have my dog licences and are chipped. If you look at horses, they all require a passport, they are chipped and markings taken by a vet. But again in both cases you have fookers who don't do any of this and this is also a problem.

There just seems to be a complete lack of coordination on this. The vets are doing one thing, the depart of agriculture another, then you have the bleeding heart charities making vets loads of money spraying cats, somewhere in all of this is the dspca, the guards, then there are certain groups of people completely flouting the law and no one will go near them, including the guards.. The whole thing is a bloody mess really. There was a dog charity on the radio this morning and the lady said that they were out the doors with dogs at the moment, including some with "behavioural issues". What the hell does that mean, the dog is vicious ?

[peasant]

One attack? Good god didn’t know they were capable of that.

Many dog owners conveniently forget that dogs are predators with predatory instincts.

Most dogs only ever get to live out these instincts chasing a ball, but given the chance and the wrong circumstances they will all of them chase and (try to) kill some kind of prey. Be that the neighbour's cat, the rabbit in the dunes or some sheep in a field.

And it gets really bad when a few of them gang up together. A lone dog might come to its senses after running around for a bit and catching nothing, a group of them will keep the "game" going till the end because they actually are successful in catching and killing.

These really bad livestock attacks usually get carried out by several dogs together, ganging up for the chase and then going home like nothing happened.

Which makes it all the more puzzling because it means that there isn't just one negligent dog owner in the vicinity, but several and the dogs have had plenty of opportunity to meet and finally gang up for the chase.

I will never understand how owners could allow their dogs to roam. Even if they don't think them capable of killing livestock ...there still are roads, cars, children, cyclists ...so many possibilities for something to go wrong.

[KHD]

I will never understand how owners could allow their dogs to roam. Even if they don't think them capable of killing livestock ...there still are roads, cars, children, cyclists ...so many possibilities for something to go wrong.

The are basically arseholes. I have the same problem here. One house up the road always had dogs and didn't give a bollox about them, they'd be getting hit by cars, running off etc... a real eye opener one day two of the grunt sons were walking along the road with an alsation that appeared on the scene as their latest dog, I was behind them in a car as the dog was out in the middle of the road, one of them proceeded to give the poor dog an unmerciful kick up its backside. I was close to thinking of running over the two scumbags.

I heard on the news there a fella from the sheepfarmers association on today about bringing people to court etc.. that's not going to work. If a dog is found wandering in amongst livestock of any description It should be an automatic fine, a 1000 euros and dog taken off them like what happens if the fire brigade are called out to a fire by someone burning rubbish in a garden. More information coordination between vets, breeders and make it mandatory so the dept of agriculture can fill in the gaps and visit properties with the support of the gardai if required. Let the dept of agriculture run it. The regulations should be as tight as what they implement for cattle, that's the only way I see this been resolved.

I remember reading about volunteers in a certain part of Dublin looking after horses because their owners don't give a bollox. Why are volunteers looking after these? They should be removed. And keep on removing them.

[kadman]

The are basically arseholes. I have the same problem here. One house up the road always had dogs and didn't give a bollox about them, they'd be getting hit by cars, running off etc... a real eye opener one day two of the grunt sons were walking along the road with an alsation that appeared on the scene as their latest dog, I was behind them in a car as the dog was out in the middle of the road, one of them proceeded to give the poor dog an unmerciful kick up its backside. I was close to thinking of running over the two scumbags.

I heard on the news there a fella from the sheepfarmers association on today about bringing people to court etc.. that's not going to work. If a dog is found wandering in amongst livestock of any description It should be an automatic fine, a 1000 euros and dog taken off them like what happens if the fire brigade are called out to a fire by someone burning rubbish in a garden. More information coordination between vets, breeders and make it mandatory so the dept of agriculture can fill in the gaps and visit properties with the support of the gardai if required. Let the dept of agriculture run it. The regulations should be as tight as what they implement for cattle, that's the only way I see this been resolved.

I remember reading about volunteers in a certain part of Dublin looking after horses because their owners don't give a bollox. Why are volunteers looking after these? They should be removed. And keep on removing them.

I hate te to break it to you, but farmers with dogs are ignorant bastards too.

I am surrounded by farmers with plenty of dogs, who let them roam all over creation at all hours. I was plagued with them when I had my husky. And its a pointless task asking them to keep their dogs in. But they are the first to complain on local radio. They dont give a feck and think they have a god given right to have dogs, and not control them.

I complained to another neighbour about his dog, and he told the rest of my neighbours that I threatened to shoot it.
I dont even own a gun

[KHD]

I hate te to break it to you, but farmers with dogs are ignorant bastards too.

I am surrounded by farmers with plenty of dogs, who let them roam all over creation at all hours. I was plagued with them when I had my husky. And its a pointless task asking them to keep their dogs in. But they are the first to complain on local radio. They dont give a feck and think they have a god given right to have dogs, and not control them.

I complained to another neighbour about his dog, and he told the rest of my neighbours that I threatened to shoot it.
I dont even own a gun

Absolutely agree with you Kadman, being an arsehole is not limited to one cross section of the public. I'm just giving my own experiences on this. But around where I live it's people wandering through fields with large dogs ( up to 7 off the lease is the record set earlier this year ) running around upsetting cattle and horses, specifically young foals, which can end up caught up in a fence or hedge. What I'm saying is a dog should be kept within the property boundaries of the owners house, if there is a problem with it roaming put up a chain link fence or something similar and not have it shitting and causing problems in.a neighbour's property.

[KHD]

I'm sandwiched between two neighbours here who have large dogs. One side the neighbour makes an effort to train it and it has never broken through to ourselves, even if it did I wouldn't have to worry about it being visicious. He is regularly exercises etc its a lovely Alsation.

On the other side they have a bigger type dog,don't know the breed but it is huge and aggressive, it gets no training or exercise, seems to be wound up all the time, if I didn't have a high fence up it would have savaged probably myself or father at this stage. They couldn't give a bollox about it or where it is, to me they shouldn't have a dog as they don't look after it o give it the required attention.

You have responsible dog owners and then you have the irresponsible crowd that don't give a fck until an incident happens. And you don't get a second chance with a dog in my opinion.

[JayZeus]

There’s many a worrisome dog has simply disappeared when the owner won’t control it properly. I have a neighbour who has had two Pyrenean Mountain dogs in succession. Both have been allowed roam freely on our land and forests, and both have been territorial and aggressive towards me on my land. I was sick of talking to the owner, who couldn’t understand what my problem was or how she was responsible. For 2 years I listened to her shite and tried to keep the peace.

Now I’m 100% against animal cruelty of any kind, but the first was dispatched with a shotgun when it literally stalked me around the outbuildings one evening. My wife had to roar at me from the house to warn me to dog was silently creeping up behind me. Enough was enough. That dog was simply disappeared.

She replaced it with the second, also allowed roam freely and and in short order adopting the same defensive territorial approach to me. I had the shotgun with me as I walked the fields though, making that fact visible, and the neighbour saw this and called the dog away the next time it ran at me.

She fenced her yard properly after that and we’ve had no cause to speak about it or anything else since then.

I won’t accept anyone telling me a dog isn’t a threat when it is. And when the situation demands it, one has to act.