Judge orders dogs behind "savage" Athlone attacks to be put down

A judge has ruled that two dogs who killed a dog being walked by its owner in Athlone's Burgess Park last Saturday afternoon must be put down.

The two dogs, of the American Bulldog breed, attacked and killed Dustin, a nine-year-old Collie cross owned by Athlone man Seamus Byrne, in an incident which happened in the busy riverside park at around 3pm on Saturday.

Moments later, they attacked and injured a Golden Retriever that was also being walked in the park by its owner, Ciara Hoare.

At Athlone District Court yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, Sergeant Sheila Kenny brought an application seeking the destruction of the two dogs, under Section 22 (1) of the Control of Dogs Act.

The court was told that the dogs' owner, Adam Dempsey of Tormey Villas, Athlone, had consented to one of the dogs being put down, but not both.

The dogs were being held in a pound in Mullingar after Mr Dempsey agreed to hand them over to the Gardai on Saturday evening last.

Sergeant Kenny said there was a sense of urgency to yesterday's hearing, because if the court did not make an order in relation to the dogs Mr Dempsey would have been entitled to seek their return to him yesterday evening.

During a lengthy, and at times emotional, hearing evidence was given of the dogs being loose in Athlone on three other occasions, and of them carrying out a separate attack on a dog that was being walked in Wansboro Park, Athlone, in August.

Seamus Byrne said the fatal attack on his beloved pet on Saturday had been "clinical" and involved one dog going for his pet's throat while the other attacked from a different direction.

"I will never forget the violence of those two dogs and how they savagely attacked and killed my dog," he said.

The hearing also included evidence from Ms Hoare, who was walking her pet, a 15-month-old Golden Retriever, which was attacked by Mr Dempsey's dogs after they had killed Dustin.

Mr Dempsey told the court he was a dog lover, who had kept dogs all his life, and he was genuinely sorry about what happened on Saturday.

He told the court he had only become aware that the two dogs were missing from his home on Saturday when he saw a Facebook post which said they had been seen in the Golden Island area of the town.

He accepted that the older of the two American Bulldogs was dangerous to other dogs. However, he argued that the younger dog should not be put down and said "pack mentality" was the reason why this dog participated in the attacks last weekend.

Describing the fatal attack on Dustin as "savage", Judge Bernadette Owens concluded that both of Mr Dempsey's dogs were dangerous, and she said it was "with a heavy heart" that she was making the order to have the two dogs destroyed.

* For the full court report, see next week's Westmeath Independent