The Government has displayed no interest in stopping dog attacks on livestock, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association has claimed.
Ahead of their appearance before the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee, the INHFA is calling for officials to take the issue more seriously.
On The Pat Kenny Show, INHFA Vice President John Joe Fitzgerald said hundreds of animals are attacked every year.
"730 animals were attacked by dogs,” he explained.
“Including 450 sheep and more than 230 cattle.
“Of those figures, 420 animals were either maimed or killed.”
Sheep and lambs in a meadow. Picture by: incamerastock / Alamy.Mr Fitzgerald described the problem as “absolutely atrocious” and continued that pregnant livestock are especially at risk.
“If a sheep is heavily pregnant, if she sees a dog that she doesn’t know come into a field, it worries them and it creates a scenario where they could actually abort their lamb.
“That’s how significant this is.
“Especially if you have a flock of them there; a flock of 50 sheep inside of a field and you have a strange dog come in there, over half of those sheep could abort their lambs within a couple of days.
“That’s how serious it is.”
Despite the seriousness of the issue, Mr Fitzgerald said he felt the pleas of farmers were being ignored.
“No Minister or Government seems to want to deal with it,” he said.
“And that’s more worrying for us than anything else.”
Sheep in Galway. Picture by: Alexander Prautzsch/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB.Mr Fitzgerald added that all farmers “want to see this dealt with”.
“The psychological effect, I’ll give you an example there,” he said.
“A farmer I was dealing with in North Kerry there just before Christmas, I met him on December 8th and he had about 25 sheep killed or maimed - his neighbour had the same thing.
“He was getting up in the middle of the night for a month or six weeks after that - two or three times a night.
“When he heard a dog barking outside, he’d run out, he had the gun with him.
“When that man got up in the morning, he was devastated mentally, mentally drained.”
Anyone whose dog worries livestock may be liable for prosecution under Section 9 of the Control of Dogs Act.
The Department of Agriculture has been contacted for comment.
Main image: A dog chasing a sheep. Picture by: Alamy.com.
