A pedigree sheep breeder said that it will take years for their farm to recover after five sheep were killed in a dog attack.

The incident occurred at Monahan’s pedigree Texel farm in Co Monaghan in the early hours of Sunday 19 January, during which four in-lamb ewes and one two-star Texel ram were killed.

Four other sheep were scared into a drain during the night and had to be rescued in the morning.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Eamonn Monahan said that each of the sheep were heavily covered in blood and one had its leg bitten off.

“We live a mile away from the farm and every time that we go down now, we’re wondering: ‘Is everything okay? Are they going to be alive?’. Everything in my book, after we see that horrendous attack, is at risk on our farm right now,” he said.

“We don’t know what to do and that’s the hard part.

“The gardaí and the vet that came out to us were fantastic; a young vet to see that scene and then to have to put sheep down because we couldn’t recover them because their injuries were that bad. It’s tough to do that.”

Defenceless

With lambing starting in less than two weeks, the farm has now lost 25% of its breeding ewes and the nine lambs that were due to be born.

The farmers are also worried about how the attack will affect the rest of the in-lamb ewes that were on the farm during the attack.

“It’s emotional, it’s financial, it’s mental, it’s all of those things. It was like something from a horror film,” Eamonn’s daughter Niamh said.

“Abortions and everything, that’s all down the tracks for us, which is very worrying as well.

“The sheep that were chased into the drain, one ewe in-lamb with twins was on her back in the drain. There’s no telling how long they were in there; we don’t know what the repercussions are yet.”

Action

The Monaghan county dog warden, with an Garda Síochána, is currently investigating the incident.

Niamh Monahan is a teacher and part-time farmer who recently completed her green cert with hopes of continuing farming.

Her father has called on local politicians and incoming policy makers to raise awareness of the threat of unguarded dogs on livestock and children.

“Those dogs will come back; there’s no question of it. Once they have the taste of blood.

“I always remember a great advertisement on RTÉ; the little dog was curled up at the door and isn’t he lovely. But when you went to bed, he was ravaging across the field.

“I’ll be telling my politicians when they come to meet us that these advertisements need to be seen again. That little pet that you think wouldn’t harm anybody, if he gets into a group [of sheep] at night, he will shred them sheep to bits.”

Awareness

“A lot of my friends aren’t into farming, but when I shared that post on Facebook, it shocked me the amount of people that messaged me back to ask could a dog actually do this,” added Niamh.

“Even the fact that they are asking these questions, people don’t realise that dogs can do this.

“What if this dog went for a person or even worse a child? Our animals tried to put up a fight, but imagine if it was a little toddler, it doesn’t worth bear imagining,” added Niamh.