MARKSMEN from a Co Tipperary gun club have shot dead two dogs which killed more than 200 sheep on six farms over the past 10 days.
One farmer lost all his ewes in the attacks, which farmers described as particularly gruesome.
Mr Michael Gleeson, a farmer from Killoscully, Newport, said he had never witnessed such a ferocious attack on sheep by dogs. He said he had lost 35 ewes, and many lambs were left without mothers and would die. Other ewes had been so badly worried they would also die.
"I have often seen ewes which have been attacked and worried but I have never known dogs to eat the snout of a ewe and leave her alive," he said.
"One of my neighbours has lost all his ewes and his living as a result of these dogs."
Mr Gleeson said the first of the dogs involved was shot last Friday. When hunters approached the animal it went to attack them. "The dog was mad and it was completely wild," he said. He said the second dog was cornered and killed at the weekend and he praised the local Killoscully gun club for destroying the dogs.
Mr Gleeson said the dogs were of an Alsatian/sheepdog cross, and their owners could not be traced. "That means the farmers will have to meet the costs themselves. It's a terrible tragedy for the farmers around here," he said.
Meanwhile, the hunt continues in south Co Donegal for two dogs which have killed nearly 600 sheep since November near the town of Carrick.