KERRY COUNTY COUNCIL has launched an investigation into a dog’s death after it was ‘electrocuted’ by a streetlight in Tralee.

The incident happened on 9 January when Emma Fitzgibbon was walking her three-year-old Golden Retriever ‘Cookie’ in the Caherslee area of Tralee.

Speaking to Deirdre Walsh on Radio Kerry’s ‘TalkAbout’, Fitzgibbon said she was walking her dog at around 5.30pm and noted that it was icy at the time.

She said that the dog became hesitant after walking by a streetlight and then fell to the ground and went into a spasm.

“He was completely distressed and lost complete control of his body,” said Fitzgibbon, who added that she was “overwhelmed” by the incident.

Fitzgibbon phoned a local vet for help and said that after a few minutes, the dog’s “screeching lessened as he was dying”.

She added that the dog was young and healthy and had never been sick.

Fitzgibbon thought the dog might have stepped on something but a passerby touched the dog and remarked that he felt a “jolt of electricity from the dog”.

The passerby asked if the dog had come into contact with a nearby streetlight and Fitzgibbon said that her dog had not touched it.

The passerby meanwhile also got a shock from the streetlight when he touched it.

When the vet arrived, Fitzgibbon said that she touched the dog and remarked that “there was electricity” in the Golden Retriever.

ESB workers later arrived on the scene and turned off power to the streetlight.

Fitzgibbon said the dog “died in a matter of minutes” and was “fried from the inside-out”.

She added that her understanding is that the electricity was travelling from the streetlight, “under the concrete, conducted with the ice and the dog stepped on the ice”.

She said that her dog didn’t “hit the pole” and noted that she had been wearing rubber boots at the time.

Fitzgibbon told Radio Kerry that both local gardaí and the ESB said that the incident would be referred to Kerry County Council.

She said that Kerry County Council, which Radio Kerry reports has responsibility for streetlights in the town, is carrying out an investigation into the “unprecedented event”.

However, Fitzgibbon added that she has heard “nothing back” from the Council since.

Radio Kerry has reported that the streetlight in question, as well as a number of other lights in the area, had been out of order for some time and were switched back on the day the dog died.