Sheep farmer David Shaw has been using a drone to monitor his sheep spread across land in Eadestown, Co. Kildare, following his sixth dog attack in the last two years.

The farmer had to put down five two-month old lambs at the weekend due to bite marks from dogs. There were also another five lambs with bite marks, which he said may experience infection later.

Shaw said that there "is never a good time for something like this to happen", but in the midst of lambing, he said this "is probably the worst time possible".

Shaw added that the incident has "caused a complete dampener" on the farm, and that he is "constantly worried" about dogs coming back.

With about 350 sheep left to lamb, Shaw said that he does not have time to constantly check each field, so has been using a drone to fly over fields nearly every hour.

"You walk into a field and are scared about what might be there. It is the not knowing if it will happen again and constant checking," Shaw said.

He said that this is the third attack in two weeks within a two mile radius, and that "more needs to be done" to increase microchipping to be able to "track where dogs are at all times".

The annual ‘No Dogs Allowed’ campaign was launched last month by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) to recognise the “deepening issue” of dog attacks on livestock.

As part of this year’s campaign, the IFA have called for a single national database for all dogs correlating licensing and microchipping and identifying the person responsible for the dog.

The IFA has also called for full enforcement of microchipping and licensing obligations of dog owners for all dogs and "significant" on the spot fines for dogs found worrying livestock.