You assume they have owners

@ Kieran.. I assume they do yes.. but maybe they don’t .. still sad..

Your watching too much tv I’d say .

Spell check much?

Brian, Where is de spelchecker on de App i cant find it newhere?

Do you really need spell check to spell “and”, if you do I think you seriously have problems.

Proper English much?? Grow up!

Correct grammar even!!

The owners should be put down?

Dogs or the owners?

Bit harsh Linda….

Dogs!

You’re right Linda.

Disgraceful in this day and age to see a man not being able to alter the evolutionary genetics of an animal to instinctively tell it to not do what it’s supposed to do

Shame on them!

That’s an awfully daft comment Linda, these dogs did nothing out of character, their instinct is the result of many generations of evolution, and they can’t help that.

Absolute rubbish. Domesticated dogs don’t need or want to tear the throat out of defenseless animals. What’s to stop these dogs from doing it to kids? These are clearly just part-time pets. We see them all the time. Owners just…… well, they just claim to own them. Little or no training is given & most likely little or no love if they’re just left on the streets at night.
These owners should be held 100% responsible for “their” dogs actions.

I’ll bet you anything not one of these owners has a dog license!!!!!

We had two Siberian huskies who were walked daily and generally spoilt rotten. They wer fenced in with a decent sized space to run. One day they escaped and killed two sheep and were shot. It’s a dog’s nature to hunt and anyone who knows anything about huskies will know it’s in their nature to run. Their nicknames are hairy Houdinis. I think it’s very unfair to assume the owners are to blame without knowing the facts. Yes some of these could have been strays or barely looked after but others may not. Dogs have a pack mentality after all.

@barry perhaps that’s because humans don’t form a normal part of a canids diet, unlike say……sheep.

Liam, owners have a legal obligation to be in control of their dogs at all times. That’s the law. Their evolutionary predisposition is secondary to this particular story.

I could not have come up with a better example of a “Pack” dog than a Husky if I tried…. I’d have to go outside of domesticated dogs & on to Wolves to find the closest comparison.

I love dogs & find Huskys beautiful but would never keep one unless I lived in a cooler environment & had several hours free EVERY day to exercise them.

If they don’t get enough exercise they go mad (very common) if they don’t respect you 100% (they need to see you as a true leader) they’ll go do their own thing!

If they escape their enclosure have a guess what the most common thing is that they’ll do?

HUNTING!

Imagine that?

So humans kill sheep, cattle, pigs and even other humans every day of the week, but when dogs attack then they must be destroyed? Hypocrisy if ever I heard it.

Was it a pack of huskies that killed the sheep in Roscommon? I’ve a husky and never let him off the lead. There’s ways around the exercise, bikejoring, scootering etc. any responsible Husky owner knows not to let them off lead until they are in a secure area or very very old, +10 years.

I couldn’t agree more! We were well aware of the work that went into owning huskies before we got them two having owned six before all which died of old age. That was the first time they escaped on us. We had just taken in a small wire haired terrior who had been roaming the country. She dug out and the huskies followed. They were out less than an hour before they made it about four miles to the nearest sheep farm. We got the terrior back a week later. She hadn’t been able to keep up with the other two and thankfully was fine and hadn’t done any damage to anything herself. You can do everything in your power to control them but they still have the basic instinct to hunt!

Training has nothing to do with it. I come from a sheep farming area in County Kerry and most of the dogs that I have known to kill sheep were actually trained sheepdogs who killed for sport. Sheepdogs being the clever dogs that they are know what they are doing is wrong and will be very devious in deceiving their owners. They will clean themselves and make sure to return quickly to avoid detection. The only way to really be sure that they won’t kill is to restrict them when unsupervised.

Some of you people are absolutely thick. Dogs of almost any breed will roams a pack if they are free. It is 100percent in their genus tattoo duo it, just as it is their instinct to chase a ball or stick! I agree that it’s an owners responsibility to keep their dogs inside and away from mischief but to suggest that these dogs could progress to killing CHILDREN? That is an absolutely ludicrous statement.

All those sheep and lambs , are going to be slaughtered anyway . I feel for the farmers financial loss . But let’s not kid ourselves its all about the money . Not animal welfare

@Stephen. If a farmer killed sheep in the manner that dogs do they would be brought up on charges. The ewes were “in lamb” meaning they were pregnant so no they were not going to be slaughtered.

Who let the dogs out?

woof, woof, woof, woof

When dogs get together a pack mentality takes over, esp at night. The bigger the pack, the worse they are and the bad side comes out in dogs that are perfectly behaved and trained.

Some of you people making fun of this article, may be those whose businesses were once broken into and ransacked.

Recognise that this is no difference here.

I’m not making fun at all. Usually after something like this a few pets will be shot. Make sure your dogs are locked up.

About 15 years ago now our neighbours Red Setter was blown away by a trigger happy farmer. He had lost a few sheep. The next night the pack came back and he lost a few more. He keep shooting up the place until the Gardai and vet had to come and warn every dog to stay in doors. Poison was the mans next option and that was when things got messy. Many good dogs were lost in 97 and will be remembered fondly. You weren’t there man!

There will be alot of Roscommon men not getting any tonight!!

Trolling much?

Well humans eating sheep = +€€ whereas dogs eating sheep =-€€

But when a dog eats a sheep it does so by literally ripping it’s face off. when humans eat sheep its done a lot more humanely.

I don’t know that we deserve any medals for how we obtain our meat. It’s not humane, in fact it’s pretty creepy how coldly we premeditate our kill. Raise them then kill them in their prime and take their bodies apart and vacuum pack them for sale on an industrial scale- when you really think about it it is seriously effed up, we are just completely desensitised to it.
Imagine that being done to people. There’s a real horror to it no matter what kind of animal it is being done to.

Right on Ailis.. seriously, they even merrily market the meat as lamb.. So what’s so “humane” about slaughtering juvenile animals in abattoirs? Barbaric..

Huskeys I believe.

Hahaha funniest

Don’t believe everything “the lads in the pub say”.

Goes to show how much you know about farming

You must spend a lot of time in the pub Richard, you always open a comment with “the lads in the pub say” :)

I think ‘the lads from the pub’ are really in his head!

Bobby
That’s sick rather than bad. Apart from the terror caused deaths there is the massive financial loss to the farming family and no compensation unless they find the owners of the dogs. In this country we allow our kids to behave in the same fashion as dogs. They’re free to roam any time of he day or night. We don’t know where we are and we don’t believe they will get into any trouble and so what if they have the odd fight.
My neighbour refused to keep her two dogs off my property last year and I warned her four times. Some months later the local sheep farmer called to say that nineteen sheep had aborted and fourteen of the ewes were dead. She had to pay the bill and the dogs were put down.

” In this country we allow our kids to behave in the same fashion as dog”

Really? Well my kids have never attacked and eaten a dozen sheep… and they don’t shit in the back garden

Speak for you own kids Michael J!

Aaron. Totally agree. The word “we” is used too often on the journal by some commenters, even though it may only represent a minority of people.

The farmer will have a bigger gun than you! you and your water pistol.

Plus the farmer has the right to shoot your dogs.

Shoot the farmer With your finger I suppose .

Yes if my dogs where attacking sheep and worrying them fair enough I’d have no complaints , But if any farmer gets trigger happy and starts shooting innocent dogs .. I’ll do time

Eoghan, I’m a dog owner and my dog never the house without me. She’s always on a leash whenever she is out as well.

People in this country need to lear to take a little personal responsibility instead of blaming everyone else.

i have 2 dogs, within the 5 houses on the road we have 6 dogs between the lot of us (one house has none) the dogs do visit each other during the day, we have sheep in a nearby field, and all our dogs have been trained to stay way from them…even when last year i had 3 sheep to stray into us, our dogs barked but they didnt come near them as we have them trained, they are locked into a large run with 2 kennels when we are not around though. But come down here and you more often than not meet sheep on the roads, would love to know whose responsible if i was to accidently hit one?

Dogs visit each other? What is it, Animals of Farthing Wood? You do know its illegal to let a dog roam freely?

they dont roam freely, they dont go down the road either, they go down the backs of the houses, well okay maybe visit is the wrong word, how does they go and play with each other instead? If i have no objection and neither do my neighbours, and the dogs are all well kept, whats the problem?

Stupid comment eoghan. You are responsible for your dog 24/7. If a dog came into your garden a bit you on the leg would you say”its my fault. I should have put up a better fence so irresponsible dog owners can let dogs run free” doubt you would.

How do you for sure that you or your neighbours dogs wouldn’t form a pack and chase a few sheep for sport? As I said already in a comment training and obedience has nothing to do with whether they will kill or not. It’s instinct and often just sport to dogs and while a dog may not kill he can be a ringleader for others. Trained and normally obedient sheepdogs often kill sheep too. I’ve even seen a Pomeranium lead a couple of Labradors to kill while he watched on.

Laura, if you have an accident with a stray animal then the owner is responsible. All farmers and pet owners have an obligation to make sure that their animals are in a secure location.

Don’t give up the day job there Peter.