Farmers should apply dog warning to themselves

YOU report (March 10) the IFA claim that dog attacks on sheep are carried out by “family pets”, but the fact is that many, if not most, attacks are carried out by farmers’ dogs.

These unfortunate animals are often kept tied up or locked in a shed except when needed and, devoid of human and canine company, they become vicious and deranged.

On the other hand, pet dogs are normally docile and socialised with humans and other animals, and kept under surveillance and control. They are more interested in play, sex and food than savaging sheep

This is not to say there are not irresponsible owners with ‘latchkey’ or badly educated dogs which are liable to attack other dogs and people, let alone sheep, but the answer to this is the proper training and licensing of dog-owners. The 1986 Control of Dogs Act entitles anyone owning livestock to shoot any dog irrespective of the circumstances. God knows how this iniquitous bill ever became law. It is a monument to the power of fanatics and extremists within the farming lobby and the mental debility of those in the Dáil.

It is a vigilante’s charter which indemnifies revenge or gratuitous killing of innocent dogs and must be repealed.

Fortunately, this does not happen because farmers, like everyone else, act reasonably and get on well with their neighbours.

Therefore, it is wicked of the farming lobby constantly to try to drive a wedge through the community by portraying the general public as ignorant yahoos who trash the countryside and send out packs of “marauding” dogs when they would be better advised to harangue their own members.

Michael Job

Rossnagrena

Glengarriff

Co Cork