Pet dog shot as ‘hate campaign’ forces family to flee home

A DOMESTIC pet was shot and badly wounded in a series of intimidating acts that forced a family to flee a housing estate in Limerick.

A reported “hate campaign” led by the children of neighbours forced the family to vacate their home in Garryowen. The family’s mental torture follows shock revelations, in this newspaper yesterday, of widespread intimidation of elderly residents in Southill’s Keyes Park estate.

There, gangs of marauding children are running wild late at night.

Meanwhile, the family in the Garryowen estate were forced to flee their home in recent days due to attacks by members of another family.

Last week, the family were targeted in a late-night gun attack when somebody shot their pet dog while it was in the back garden of the house.

The dog survived horrific wounds after undergoing two operations at the Treaty Veterinary Clinic. Vet John Garrahy, who performed the surgery, said in all his years in practice, he never came across a case like this. Fearing further attacks, it has now been confirmed that the family have moved out and Limerick City Council has boarded up their house.

Detective Sergeant Kevin McHugh said the discharge of a firearm in a built-up area is a very serious matter and their investigation is ongoing.

Mayor John Gilligan, who represents the Garryowen area, disclosed that members of two families were causing serious trouble in the area. He said: “We are taking one of the two families involved to court, to have them evicted and we are looking to have the other family relocated. They are causing significant anti-social behaviour which will have to be tackled head on.

“The city council has no intention of letting Garryowen, a beautiful settled estate in the heart of the city, with a huge tradition fall victim to this behaviour. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that the situation does not continue. We are not going to have people driven from their homes. We have seen what happened in other areas when these kind of situations were not tackled,” said the mayor.

It is believed the family who fled their home in Garryowen has been re-housed by the council in another part of the city.