Mum’s appeal after child’s pet rabbit is mauled to death by dog

Mum’s appeal after child’s pet rabbit is mauled to death by dog

8 July 2015

A BALLYHORNAN mother has appealed for dog owners to keep their pets on a lead after her daughter’s rabbit was mauled to death in her garden.

The terrier dog pulled down an outdoor rabbit pen and killed the animal after running into Roisin Maguire’s garden last week.

Although Roisin was not at home at the time, neighbours who witnessed the incident, said the dog’s owners called after it when it ran off the coastal path outside Maguire’s house.

One of the owners went into the garden to retrieve the dog before continuing their walk.

It was only when Roisin’s children arrived home that they discovered their pet on the lawn.

Roisin Maguire is angry that the dog’s owners did not admit to 

what had happened and said the incident would have been much less distressing for her 11 year-old daughter Nora if the rabbit had been lifted from the garden before she returned home.

She said this was the latest in a number of incidents in which dogs were allowed to run free by their owners, but said it was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“If the dog owners had come to the door or called to our neighbour’s house and admitted to what had happened the situation would not have been quite as bad,” she said.

“However, my two daughters had to discover the scene and it was very upsetting for both of them.

“We have had rabbits for a long time and have always been very careful about them during 

the day because so many people let their dogs off the lead outside our house. 

“We moved the pen further away from the path because of dogs running in and out and often fouling in the process.

“There are also small children in the area who need to be protected from dogs. This is an accident waiting to happen.”

Roisin’s neighbour Geraldine Teggart said she heard the commotion and watched the couple retrieve the dog from the garden amid much shouting before putting it back on its lead.

“If they had come to our door and said what had happened we could have taken the rabbit away but they didn’t, they just walked away,” she said.

“I love dogs but I do believe they should be kept on a lead. That could have been a small child.

“The whole pen was pulled down and the rabbit was lying dead beside it so there is no way they didn’t know what had happened.”