FARMERS in North Galway and South Mayo have come together to highlight the issue of gangs encroaching onto their lands with ‘lurching dogs’ and have asked Gardaí for more support.

Over 100 landowners turned out for a meeting on the issue last month at the Roundfort Community Centre in South Mayo which was also attended by senior Gardaí and a number of politicians.

The meeting – which was chaired by Mayo IFA County Chairman, John Lynskey – heard that there were many cases of unsavoury encounters with people who trespassed onto farmers’ lands over recent weeks and months

Mayo and Galway IFA held an open public meeting on the ongoing concern of dog control and the practice of lurching by certain members of the public in Roundfort Community Centre last week where there were over 100 landowners in attendance.

Garda Superintendent, Deirdre Gill along with local sergeants from the Claremorris area, attended the meeting where farmers called for more Garda support when individuals or groups went onto their lands without permission.

A number of speakers said that while Gardaí had been very helpful where such ‘confrontational incidents’ occurred between landowners and those with the lurching dogs, a quicker response was required when problem situations arose.

Local politicians who attended the meeting including Deputy Paul Lawless and councillors Patsy O’Brien, Damien Ryan, Richard Finn and Michael Burke, promised to bring up the issues raised at a meeting of Mayo County Council in an effort to more involvement from dog wardens.

According to the organisers of the meeting, the Gardaí also gave an undertaking to work more closely with local landowners and farmers on the problem of the lurch gangs trespassing onto private lands.

At the Roundfort meeting, large ‘No Dogs Allowed’ were distributed to those in attendance who were urged to prominently these notices on the entry points to their farms.

Galway-Mayo IFA Regional Executive, Roy O’Brien, urged farmers with any issues over trespassers onto their lands and fears over their personal safety to report the matter without delay to their local Gardaí.

“Farmers do feel threatened and intimidated when such individuals just come onto their lands whenever they like and without permission,” Roy O’Brien told the Farming Tribune.

A Code of Practice – agreed between the Gardaí and IFA at national level – was also discussed at the meeting. This code deals with the personal safety of farmers and their families as well as the ‘Reporting and Observing’ of such incidents.

Pictured are local farmers landowners attending the IFA meeting on Dog control and Lurching in Roundfort Community Centre earlier this month raising signs of  ‘No Dogs Allowed’ entry onto their lands without prior agreement.