A vicious sheep kill by two dogs on a flock of hoggets owned by Laois farmer Joe Kennedy resulted in almost a quarter of his remaining hoggets being wiped out.

The incident occurred early Saturday morning on an outfarm of Kennedy’s in Mountmellick when two Husky bred dogs attacked a group of 58 hoggets, killing 14 sheep.

The hoggets were fed and checked late on Friday evening. Joe returned on Saturday morning and said he instantly knew there was a problem.

“I saw hoof prints of sheep in a field where there was meant to be no sheep and as I walked towards the field where the sheep should be, I could see animals lying dead around the field,” he said.

“Some of the remaining live hoggets were still in the field while others had broken away into other fields. When I found these, the two dogs had the sheep cornered in a ditch and were still attacking them,” he added.

Joe managed to stop the dogs from attacking the sheep and secure them while raising the alarm to his neighbour Ger Hayden.

Panic

Joe explained that the attack must have been going on for some time given the number of hoggets that were killed and the panic that caused the sheep to break away in so many directions.

The kill is a significant loss but Joe concedes it could have been worse, “the loss of the 14 sheep is big as they were ready for slaughter but it could have been worse. I have ewes about a week from lambing outside at home and if it had been them there could have been untold damage.

‘‘The live hoggets are in the shed but I cannot get anywhere near them they are that frightened so you can imagine what it would be like for in-lawmb ewes,” he said.

The Irish Farmers Journal, farm organisations and flock owners urge all dog owners to keep their dogs secured at all times and to take extra precautions as we enter the high risk lambing season.