A farmer in Co. Kerry has told Agriland of his shock at finding 11 of his lambs dead and another 18 injured following a dog attack over the weekend.
Tomás O’Leary made the grim discovery around 9:30a.m on Saturday (August 5) when he was checking his sheep and cattle, kept in several groups at his out-farm in Beaufort.
The farmer said he knew something was wrong when he found his last group of lambs huddled together “in an awful state” in the field furthest from the yard.
“I went around the field and I did a headcount. There were lambs all over the field in different parts; there were 11 in total that were dead,” he said.
Some of the dead lowland lambs, born in March, were quite near finishing, while others would have been ewe lambs selected for future breeding.
Lambs
“After that, I went around the ditches and there were lambs stuck in the sheep wire, some lambs had jumped over the sheep wire and were caught between the wire and the ditch,” O’Leary said.
Once he had released the trapped lambs, the farmer returned to the yard and rang An Garda Síochána.
“The guards were out within 15 minutes. They took photographs and spoke to me about it and said they would go around to houses in the locality to inquire if they knew anything.
“That’s as much as they could do. Guards get a hard time of it at times but in fairness, I couldn’t but praise them for their help,” he said.
The farmer then collected the carcasses and brought the rest of the group of 180 lambs into the yard to examine them.
A vet was called for 18 of the lambs that had suffered bites to their throats, necks and legs.
The animals are now being treated daily with antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. However, the farmer is not sure if all of the injured lambs will survive.
He is also concerned about the remainder of the lambs that were not injured but have “fallen away” since the attack, which took place sometime between Friday evening and Saturday morning.
“They’ve lost condition, I don’t know when or will they ever put it on again. It will take a long time anyway,” O’Leary said.
Luckily, the farmer’s breeding ewes and another group of finishing lambs were not affected by the incident.
Dog attack
The farmer, who lives around 16 miles away in Rathmore, spent the first two nights following the dog attack in his car on the out farm keeping an eye on his flock.
“During the day they would be out around the field but once it started to get dark every single one of them ran up to the corner and they didn’t leave the corner for the night.
“It’s totally not normal for lambs to be huddled like that. They’re petrified, they’re still frightened.”
O’Leary believes that it was a “pack” of bigger dogs that was involved in the attack. “Some of the carcasses were eaten, it was pure carnage,” he said.
The farmer said that there has not been any dog attack in the area in a long time.
“I just want to get the word out there really for people to be responsible and tie up their dogs.
“My biggest fear is that they’ll be back again. They were gone home to their kennel when I arrived,” he said.