Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, and the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Heather Humphreys, for renewing their annual call for people to protect lambs and sheep from dog attacks, especially during lambing season. As someone from a farming community and a sheep farmer, I know the damage that dogs can do to pregnant ewes and lambs. It is devastating. Our family had 13 sheep killed last year in just one incident. All that is needed is for the dog owner to love animals, as we love our animals, and to protect them as they should protect them by keeping the dogs safe, away from sheep and in kennels. I ask people who walk with a dog on commonage land to keep it on a lead. The dog does not know the fluffy animal in the distance is not a teddy or for fun. The dog does not know that sheep need to be protected. The dog believes the sheep is something to be played with. It is not the dog's fault for killing sheep but the owner's fault.