In the last fortnight, Co Laois sheep and suckler farmer Damien Delaney has lost 13 of his sheep to marauding dogs.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal he said that two weeks ago, on 4 May, his father arrived out to one of his fields to find three of his ewes dead. Another three then died as a result of their injuries.

“On Thursday morning, my father found them. He said he saw two dogs leaving the field, a big black one and a smaller one.”

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Delaney, who farms just outside Mountrath, understands the dogs to be a black labrador and a small terrier.

“Then on the Saturday just gone, three sheep were killed while another four of the sheep died as a result of shock.

“I’ve 13 sheep lost in the last two weeks. They now scatter in the field when you go to walk through them. They’re scared and terrified.”

Delaney isn’t the only farmer in the area to be affected. He says that four more local farmers have lost sheep as a result of the dog attacks and that the attacks seem to be going on since Christmas.

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