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28th Sep 2021

Dublin woman’s beloved dog “tortured and thrown into canal”

Sarah McKenna Barry

Karen Tierney shared her story on Irish radio, and called for animal cruelty to be taken more seriously.

A Dublin woman told Liveline yesterday that her pet dog Keisha was allegedly tortured and killed before being found in a gym bag in the canal.

Speaking to host Damien O’Reilly, Karen Tierney shared her devastating story and called for an end to animal cruelty.

Ms Tierney explained how her dog managed to escape their home while her family was out working, and when they discovered she was missing, they set up a search party to find her.

She later got a call to say that some children had seen a dog matching Keisha’s description floating in the canal.

“She was tied up in a gear bag, like a gym bag, which was only half her size,” Ms Tierney said. “It was zipped up right to her neck, and a mobile phone wire was wrapped around her neck numerous times and tied around the handles of the bag and she was completely mutilated.

“It looks like she was cruelly treated and tortured. I’d say she was murdered before she was even thrown in the canal. She looked like she had been beaten, there was hair missing off her body.”

Tierney said that she believes her dog was killed by someone in the local area. She told the Liveline host that when they put up missing posters for Keisha, a number of them were taken down.

“Somebody knows something,” she said.

She also appealed for an end to animal cruelty, and called for the Gardaí to take reports of this nature seriously.

She said: “We just want this animal cruelty to stop. Gardaí really need to take it more seriously because what are they capable of doing next? Will it be a child? What are they capable of? People who would do that to an innocent animal.”