A Wicklow farmer says he lost over a dozen sheep following a dog attack earlier this month.
It happened during the middle of the day when two dogs managed to get onto the land in the Wicklow Mountains.
Daniel Dowling - the owner of the farm, and the owner of The Glenmalure Lodge bar and guesthouse - told The Pat Kenny Show it was the first time his family had suffered a sheep kill.
However, he said other farmers in the area experience the same thing 'day in, day out'.
He said this particular attack happened on Monday, August 16th.
He said: “On Monday 16th, my sister… made her way back home [to the farm]. She saw one of the pet lambs… with a laceration or cut to its neck.
"She inspected the lamb and got in touch with us straight away. Myself and my brother went up to the farm.
“[My brother] came across two dogs on site where they were actually doing the damage. He was able to shoot the dogs on sight.
“We went around and found animals basically everywhere on the farm.”
The family lost 11 lambs and three breeding ewes immediately, while four other sheep have died since then.
The attack had both an emotional and financial cost for the farm owners.
Daniel said: “A breeding ewe is anywhere between €250-270… the lambs then are maybe anywhere between €130 to €170.
“You look after them for maybe 9-10 months… for something like this to happen is destroying, really.
“We had over 500 animals on the farm that day… where the dogs actually entered, there were 30-40. The rest of them were up high.
"We were lucky in that way, that there weren’t more sheep down in the lowlands. It could have been an awful lot worse.”
He said they're also lucky that the owner of the dogs has taken responsibility for what happened.
He said some other farmers get "no closure whatsoever" after a dog attack leaves animals dead.
Common problem
Irish Farmers Association representative Tom Byrne said this was is a particularly large sheep kill, but similar incidents are a common problem in Wicklow.
Many times, attacks are associated with dogs being let off their leash while their owner is out walking - although that was not the case in this particular attack.
However, there's a call for hikers and walkers to be extra careful when they're out walking in countryside areas with their dogs.
Tom said: “We encourage the people of Dublin to walk and enjoy the countryside - unfortunately the downside is they bring their dogs and let them off.
"It wasn’t that way in this case, but a lot of the other kills are dogs who’ve come with walkers."
He said they don't want to discourage people to bring their dogs in the first place, but it's "not safe" to let a dog off the leash in farmland or even woodland areas.
He added: “When a dog takes after deer or sheep… there is no calling them back.”
