Decomposing cats and dogs found dumped near scenic spots

UP to 100 badly decomposed cat and dog carcasses have been found in bags dumped in a ditch in Co Kilkenny.

The local county council has drafted in a JCB to remove the gruesome find and the council’s vet has examined the remains in an effort to discover how the animals died. A spokesperson for the local authority said it is investigating the illegal dumping of the carcasses. The find was made by local people, he added.

The dead animals were stuffed into 12 fertiliser bags which were thrown over a wall and into a field.

The dead animals were found on a backroad between the scenic areas of Thomastown and Inistioge.

The site has been sealed off and work there is due to begin early next week.

Clearing the site will be all the more difficult, given its inaccessibility.

Local people are puzzled by the find and were disgusted that anyone would dump carcasses in such a way. It is thought the animals may have come from a veterinary surgery.

Anyone who noticed anything suspicious on the Thomastown to Inistioge backroad in recent weeks is urged to contact Kilkenny County Council or Thomastown gardaí.

Meanwhile, Kilkenny County Council has also had to employ an official to supervise its new Scanlon Park recycling facility. The centre was only open a week when it was forced to close because of dumping on the site.

The recycling facility, which had been relocated from the council’s machinery yard on the Hebron Road, had attracted hundreds of Kilkenny householders and the facilities were rapidly overwhelmed.

According to environmental awareness officer Sadhbh O’Neill, the local authority is now in a position to provide supervision for this site. “We have almost doubled the number of containers at the facility. It has proved impossible to continue with this facility without full-time supervision,” she said.

A number of people were abusing the facility by leaving material in plastic bags on top of the skips instead of inside them.