The heartbroken owners of two donkeys have appealed to the rustlers who stole them to return them and have offered to pay the thieves. Sonja and Kevin Bergin say nine-year-old Kismet and his sister Sahara, which is two, were "like children to us."
The gang who robbed them, probably "to order", cut through three barbed wired fences and dragged them through a ditch and across a grass verge to load them on to a trailer.
The donkeys were heard braying last Sunday and that is when the Bergins think the gang took them. "The donkeys bray a lot, so when they were heard around 3am it did not really cause alarm. However, when we looked at the grass and ditch the next morning we could see hoof marks and it is obvious they put up a brave struggle," said Sonja.
The field was a short distance from the Bergins' home at Monasterboice outside Drogheda, Co Louth. Other donkeys have been stolen in the region.
"We now believe that these thieves go around the country and stay in an area until there is too much publicity; there were a lot of donkeys stolen in Wicklow recently and now around here."
The gang probably intended to steal a donkey in a field belonging to neighbours but must have been disturbed.
"When he heard about our donkeys he checked his and found that someone had disconnected the electricity supply to his electric fence and that the fence had been cut at a point furthest away from his house." In an effort to have the two Spanish donkeys returned to them a "substantial award" is being offered.
"There will be no questions asked. If whoever took them just contacts us, or even wants to leave them back in either the field they were in or the field opposite it, we would be over the moon."
Donkeys and particularly mares can sell for between €1,000 and €1,700 and although there is legislation that all donkeys should be microchipped and have a passport, these are only useful to identify them if they are recovered.
The Bergins can be contacted on 086-3564777.