Finn, a two-year-old boxer dog that disappeared from a family home in Ballybay, Co Monaghan, on 7 December, was at the centre of a successful social media campaign until his death was announced this Friday.

Finn's owners set up "Bring Finn Home", a Facebook page appealing for information about the dog, which attracted more than 30,000 likes in the past three weeks.

Private investigator

The family offered a €5,000 reward and hired a private investigator to track down Finn, with members of the public donating money to cover the costs.

On Friday, however, the dog's owners announced on the Facebook page that their private detective had given them "reliable information from a local source that Finn has been shot in a field close our house by a local farmer".

They commented: "This is in direct violation of current Irish legislation and both ethically and morally unsustainable. In simple terms a cowardly act."

The family said that Finn was micro-chipped in accordance with recent regulations.

Control of Dogs Act

The Control of Dogs Act includes a section defining acceptable defence for a farmer shooting a dog. They must be able to prove that the dog was "worrying, or was about to worry, livestock and that there were no other reasonable means of ending or preventing the worrying". Alternatively, a dog that was "in the vicinity of a place where livestock had been injured or killed" where there is reason to believe that it was involved and cannot be seized or its owner identified may legally be shot.

The farmer must also inform the gardaí within 48 hours of shooting the dog.

Dozens of sheep were killed by uncontrolled dogs in Ireland last year.

Finn's owners have pledged to donate the money raised while searching for their dog to animal welfare charities.

Read more

Sheep drown after alleged dog attack