TWO large dogs that went on a killing rampage on Wednesday night have cost a number of County Antrim farmers thousands of pounds in dead livestock.

Farmers on the Liberty Road near Carrickfergus woke to horrific scenes on Thursday morning after the two large dogs, thought to be crossbreeds, had been hounding the sheep all night, resulting in a total of seven fatalities and more to come.

Around 9am on Thursday morning, farmer Michael Buckley saw the dogs attacking his small flock of 17 in-lamb pedigree Texel ewes in a field close to his house.

Although he managed to shoot one of the dogs dead in the field the other one escaped injured after Michael managed to get a shot at it. Five of his prized ewes are already dead but he fears the others will abort their lambs.

“I feel totally sick,” said Michael. “I found one ewe dead in the field and we had to call in the vet who immediately euthanised four more.

“The dogs had forced some of the ewes into a corner and managed to kill one and kept on attacking the others. Their injuries were so bad the vet had no choice but to put them down,” he said.

Michael’s dead sheep have already been professionally valued at around £500 each, which totals a significant loss for him, but he dreads there is further bad news to come.

“The remaining sheep have all been left traumatised and we are sure they will abort their lambs,” said Michael. “My ewes were a mix of two and three year olds and were all heavily in lamb.

“That’s a year’s income I am going to lose in one night. That’s ten years of breeding down the pan. All that hard work building up my flock has been lost,” he said.

While Michael is upset over losing his own animals he also feels terrible about having to shoot the dogs.

“I didn’t want to shoot someone else’s dogs,” he added. “However I had to try and save the rest of the flock. One of the dogs got away and the concern is it might try to return in the next few nights.

“I have lost thousands of pounds and will have to pay the vet for attending and putting down the sheep. I am also going to have to pay for the proper disposal of the dead sheep too which will cost me even more money. I have been farming here for 22 years and we have never experienced any dog attacks in this area.” he added.

Two other neighbouring farmers also lost sheep during the attacks, including David Hamilton who found two of his fat lambs dead with the hide of one of them ripped completely off.

“The dogs had chased them from their own field through a fence into the next field and attacked them there,” said David. “One of the lambs had its skin completely ripped off it. Their injuries were so severe they ended up having to be put down to put them out of their misery. My sheep were worth around £80 each which is a financial loss for us too,” he said.

Both farmers say their insurance will not cover their financial loss and it will be up to the dog owners to pay them compensation. The local council warden, together with the PSNI, is investigating the attacks.