A brisk description of dozens of sheep being killed barely does justice to the bloody scenes O’Donoghue and his family faced a couple of days after Christmas; the farmer said some of his sheep had their faces torn off but were still standing, in shock, in the fields.

This is not to mention the serious financial loss, running into the thousands of euro, suffered by the family because of another’s carelessness. The one tiny consolation was that the O’Donoghues could rely on friends and neighbours to help them to comb the area for the sheep who had scattered in terror.

Readers with long memories may recall TV advertisements decades ago exhorting dog owners to be aware of where their animals were at all times, and given the sheer number of dogs being kept as pets nowadays, it is somewhat surprising that such advertisements are not as plentiful.

In the immediate aftermath of the Lorrha attacks there were calls for tougher legislation in this area, with sanctions to be imposed on errant dog owners, but that brings us back to the eternal tension between the enforcement of regulations on one hand and relying on individuals to take personal responsibility on the other.

Relying on people to be more aware of the rights of others when regulating their own behaviour is often a waste of time, whether legislation exists in that area or not.

There are more immediate considerations, in any case. The dogs responsible for the attack in Lorrha must be found and destroyed, and their owners should be brought face to face with the consequences of their actions.

Farmers and others living in remote areas should not have to live in fear of their animals being torn to pieces due to the negligence of others.