A former social worker turned journalist has claimed that the children who kicked a dog to death in Letterkenny could harm other children.
Phil MacGiolla Bhain witnessed the dead dog at Long Lane and presumed it had simply been hit by a car.
Tis is his reaction to the revelation that three children were responsible for killing the animal.
“I drove down long lane a couple of days ago. There was a dead dog at the side of the road. The was a pool of blood around the little dog’s head. My son was upset to see this as I was.
“I assumed road kill. My son said that he hoped that the wee dog’s end was swift and painless. It was all that could be thought at that moment.
“I learned today when speaking to the owner of this website that, in fact, the dog that I had seen had been kicked to death, can we say “murder”?
I think we can.
“Had been murdered by a group of boys, the youngest of which as no more than five.
“The details of this story, shocking enough, gets worse when one learns of the response of the authorities.
“I just told my son about the modalities of the dog’s death. Eighteen, gentle and wise, he stood for a second and said:
“That could have been a kid.”
“He’s right.
“My son immediately got what the Guard in Letterkenny didn’t when he fobbed off the man making the compliant.
“The two children that murdered Jamie Bulger had a history of cruelty to animals.
“Moors murdered Ian Brady initially tested out his appetites for inflicting pain and death on helpless animals before, in manhood, well you know what he did……….
“That the police would not take a statement from this good, civic man should be a matter of the utmost seriousness for An Garda Siochana.
“That we have children in Letterkenny who are willing to kill another sentient being for their pleasure should be an urgent issue for and the Health Board.
“Almost certainly a raft of laws have been broken. If these children are under the age of criminal responsibility then the police can inform the Health Board the 1991 Child Care Act is fit for purpose. “These children should feel the power and protection of that act.
Certainly when I was a qualified Social Worker such a report of children behaving in this way would have the case brought to the top of my pile.
“I have been concerned for some time about the possibility that, post boom, this society would become a toxic mix of desperate people and disinterested public servants.
“The pillars of any society are best remembered by the pneumonic PERSIA.
“Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, Artistic.
“This society has lost four of that six very rapidly.
“Only the Intellectual and the Artistic remains intact in this society.
“The little dog deserved to live and we in Donegal deserve to have a life without fearing feral children and the men they will grow into.
