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While most families were enjoying a quiet day over the Christmas period, farmer Jim Walsh received a phone call the morning after St Stephen’s Day to say that a lone sheep had strayed on to a neighbour’s farm.
Jim keeps a flock of sheep in Ballywilliam, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and at the time they were grazing an outblock away from his farm. To have arrived in his neighbour’s field, the lone sheep had to cross both a river and a number of ditches, prompting concern for Jim.
When he went to check his flock he discovered several other sheep missing, while others were badly injured. Earlier that morning two separate lots of Jim’s sheep, a mix of hoggets and recently in-lamb hoggets, had been attacked by dogs.
Damage
“There were six sheep that had been left with badly damaged legs, they're torn-up and barely able to walk,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“There are still another six that haven’t been found and the ones that I took back home after the attack are very rattled. They’re only starting to settle now a week after.”
Jim estimates that the dogs caused upwards of a thousand euros€1,000 worth of damage between the missing sheep, injured ones, and the set back to the rest of the flock.
He said there has been no progress tracking down the dogs responsible.
“A few of the neighbours heard a disturbance around four in the morning, with their dogs barking and other loose dogs barking. At that time they wouldn’t have been able to see anything in the fields.”
Second attack
It is not the only incident to take place in the area recently. Five weeks ago there was a similar attack and Jim suspects the same dogs were involved.
He appealed to dog owners to consider their responsibilities and said that he hoped raising awareness of what happened to his flock would prompt greater care to be taken.
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