Animal charity volunteers have told of their disgust after the grim discovery of five dead puppies left to suffocate and drown in a plastic bag.
Bridget Banham, of the Roscommon SPCA, hit out after the charity was sent a gruesome picture of the five puppies which were discovered on a river bank in Shannonbridge county Offaly last Sunday.
A passer-by discovered the bodies of the dead dogs after noticing a foul stench coming from a plastic bag.
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Bridget said: "Some people are still living in the 18th century as regards animal welfare, why couldn't whoever killed those beauties have picked up the phone and called us I am certain we could have found a foster home for all five."
"Alternatively they could have put them up for sale or even free to a good home, on social media I would be 100% certain someone would have wanted them.
"It's an unspeakably cruel act to place five little pups in a plastic bag and abandon them to suffocate to death, can you imagine what they went through.
"Although they were found at Shannonbridge we have have no evidence to say they were killed there in fact it is most likely they were thrown in the river further upstream and came to the shore where they were found.
"The fact there was a foul odour coming from the bag suggests they were dead for quite a while before they were discovered.
"What a tragic and shocking thing for anybody to find.
"It is a really evil thing that was done to them but probably not the worst we have come across, I remember one incident, maybe three years ago where a dog was placed in a dog cage and buried deep down in a bog."
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