IFA plea for dog owners to act responsibly as lambing season arrives

AN urgent plea has been issued by the IFA in the run-up to the lambing season for dog owners to ensure that their pets are kept under control at all times to avoid unnecessary suffering, carnage, and income loss to flock owners.

Over 34,000 sheep farmers across the country are currently preparing to lamb down 2.4 million ewes – heavily pregnant ewes are particularly vulnerable to attacks by dogs.

According to the IFA over recent weeks, dog attacks had been reported recently in Galway Wexford, Wicklow and Offaly.

Dog owners are responsible for ensuring that their pets are under control at all times and they can be held responsible for losses involved in dog attacks, with serious financial and legal consequences.

Statistics collated by IFA indicate that the problem of dog attacks on sheep may be in the order of 300 to 400 attacks per annum, with 3,000 to 4,000 sheep injured and killed. Data on dog attacks gathered by the IFA shows an average of 11 sheep killed or injured per attack.

IFA National Sheep Chairman John Lynskey said that in law ‘it shall be a defence to any action for damages against a person for the shooting of a dog, or to any charge arising out of the shooting of a dog, if the defendant proves that:

■ The dog was shot when it was worrying, or was about to worry, livestock and that there were no other reasonable means of ending or preventing the worrying.

■ The dog was a stray dog which was in the vicinity of a place where livestock had been injured or killed, and the defendant reasonably believed that the dog had been involved in the injury or killing, and

■ There were no practicable means of seizing the dog or ascertaining to whom it belonged; and

■ That he was the person in charge of the livestock and that he notified within 48 hours the nearest Garda Station to the incident.

“Unfortunately, I am taking calls on a frequent basis from sheep farmers around the country who have suffered attacks.

“There are far too many dog owners not taking the responsibility that goes with owning a pet. Dog owners have an obligation to have their dog under control at all times,” said John Lynskey.

He also reminded all dog owners, including farmers, that they need to microchip and register all dogs by March 31, 2016. He said under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, introduced by Minister Coveney, all dogs must be microchipped from March 2016.