FIVE FOXES BUTCHERED & DUMPED.

Byline: By PHILIP RYAN and PAT TIERNEY

FIVE foxes were butchered and dumped beside a railway track, it emerged yesterday.

The animals were left to rot for weeks, before being found behind the disused line earlier this week.

The discovery was made by Raymond Aughey, of the Monaghan Society for the Prevention to Cruelty of Animals, about a mile outside the town centre.

He said: "Discovering the bodies was absolutely terrible, words could not describe how people can be so callous, to throw carcasses over the bridge, it's barbaric."

It is believed the foxes were either poisoned or snared because there were no gunshot wounds.

Mr Aughey added: "Because of the weather conditions we are not sure how long they have been there, it could have been weeks." There are around 150,000 foxes living in both rural and urban areas of the country.

Sinead McKenna, from MSPCA, added: "Cattle and horses are being neglected everywhere, lives are becoming valueless. Because of the wet summer, there is not as much feed for the animals, the good farmers will find alternatives but the bad ones will leave them to starve.

"It's illegal for anyone to dump animals, we are finding that the level of cruelty is getting worse.

"We are getting more calls to our shelter than ever before, particularly in relation to horses, more horses are being left behind at sales as their owners simply can't afford to feed them."