*Neil O’Brien with some of the injured ewes. Photograph: Joe Buckley
HALF A DOZEN ewes were left badly injured with a further one missing following an “traumatic” attack in Kilkishen.
On Saturday morning, O’Callaghans Mills farmer Neil O’Brien was notified by a neighbour that one of his gates leading onto a farm in Capplaheen, Kilkishen were damaged and he soon discovered that not alone was his property dented but that several of his ewes had been badly injured.
Following on from the attack, the East Clare farmer is still missing one animal and admitted the whole episode has been very distressing. He is of the view that up to two dogs were responsible for hurting his flock and is appealing to anyone with information to come forward to help him and his family “get closure”.
Recalling how he discovered the extent of the injuries, Neil said, “I got a text from my neighbour on Saturday morning, she text me to say a gate had fallen out by the road, I came out to straighten it and fix it up, the next thing I noticed that the insides of one of the sheep was badly torn, all ripped and covered in blood so I turned them in and found more of them were badly damaged, I found two more inside in the yard that the dogs had been ripping at the whole time, her back end and the front underneath her chest. I went through all the sheep and could see four were badly damaged, I was still missing two at the time, I found one since a half mile down the road inside in a drain where she had been for a couple of nights, I still haven’t recovered the last one. It was traumatising to come across it, it wasn’t a pretty picture”.
In total he has fifty ewes, the particular bunch that were “viciously attacked” were described by O’Brien as “the best of my ewes all home born and breed ewes from lambs. “This bunch were out separate, they were the early lambing ewes which we’re actually getting for breeding in the next couple of weeks but because of this it all has to be reconsidered and re-evaluated what is going to happen. Many of them are still badly damaged, we don’t know if they will recover, the infections could kick in because you don’t know what the dogs had or if an infection could be passed on, it is peak fly season which is a problem for sheep at this time of year”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Neil explained the extent of injuries sustained by the animals. “They are all flesh wounds, internally we don’t know what is going on, there’s five or six that are very badly damaged, they could have to be put down yet, there is no salvage value in meat for that, it will be a case of assessing them and see how they get on in consultation with the veterinary advice, we’ve been treating them Saturday but it is a very slow process. The next few days or a week will tell it all, if sheep are dull in themselves or are off form, downbeat like depression symptoms they generally won’t come around. Some of them definitely won’t be able to breed again, the value is in what you have for breeding, everything here I breed myself, they are brought from lambs, there was nothing brought in so I know the value of everything. When you spend years trying to solve problems and try have the best quality animals you can have then when something like this happens you would be downbeat about it and question what do you really want out of life because this is obviously traumatising for the animals but it doesn’t do any good for the household either”.
Financial implications will take six to eight months to calculate but O’Brien noted there would be a definite loss as he would have less animals for sale as a result. “The value of the animal you’re talking somewhere of €400 per animal but their offspring will be worth considerable money and you will get reduced offspring now next year, that will be the level of financial strain on it but at the moment you’re not thinking of anything only getting a recovery programme in place for them”.
It is the second time in a period of fifteen years that such an incident has happened, the Clare GAA official confirmed. “This time we don’t have an idea of where it came from, it was strange it happened because generally you notice a stray dog around the place for a period of time before something like this happens, this was totally out of the blue, no one could say there was stray dogs around the place, I do think there was a few dogs in it from the injuries, there was maybe a bigger dog and a smaller dog, I’d say they did come from a distance that wasn’t local to this area, we know the dogs around here and we visit them, I can say them dogs weren’t involved in it”.
County dog warden Frankie Coote was informed of the attack on Saturday as were local vets but to date neither party has been informed of a dog that could have been responsible. “You’re talking about a person coming forward at this stage, there hasn’t been a sign of another dog around the place since so someone has either taken action into their own hands and looked after the dog themselves to control it but they haven’t been forthcoming with information to me and they haven’t reported it to Frankie or local vets,” Neil said.
He warned that further attacks could happen given that a dog has now got a taste for blood. “It has always been said it is a risk of what can happen when a dog gets a taste of blood, it has got something that it didn’t get before, I don’t think too many people are throwing out raw meat to their dog to give him a taste of it. Most dogs are house dogs, they’re not working dogs, it is possible when it happens like this that something has to happen with the dog, the same with a bull, if a bull attacks somebody you have to move the animal on, when the second chance comes around more than likely you will be unlucky”.
He added, “the ewes are traumatised by the whole event, they are not the same animals, they were fit, well, fine and strong, they’d knock you if you went at them before but it is a different story now. It would be great if someone could come forward so we could get closure on it, not the financial side of it but for peace of mind because it could be someone else or another bunch of sheep belonging to me or a neighbour. People have to take responsibility for actions when they happen, it doesn’t happen frequently but it only has to happen once to be a problem”
