A woman was forced to hold back tears as she described witnessing a horrifying dog attack in Co Dublin.
The caller phoned in to Liveline on RTE Radio One on Tuesday afternoon to share her experience of animal cruelty.
Joe Duffy spoke to the woman, who used the alias "Dee", as she shared the heartbreaking story of the incident that took place in the Park West area on Friday evening, Dublin Live reports.
The host warned listeners and dog lovers that it was "one of the most extreme examples of animal abuse" he had ever come across.
The woman was driving home from work just before when she came across a gang of young men beating a little brown dog with two spades, treating the tiny pup "like a sliotar".
She said: "It was a gang of boys, men, I could see one of them with a spade in his hand.
"I suspected something sinister was going on. "
Dee could see another lady shouting across at them while she was on the phone.
The mother was concerned for the lady's safety as she was alone and drove back to ask if she was okay.
The woman told her the cruel gang were throwing the dog and hitting it with two spades.
Dee was hesitant to approach the gang as she had her three-year-old daughter in the car who was becoming quite distressed.
She rang gardai but there were no squad cars available at the time.
She said: "I sat there for 45 minutes, praying that a squad car would pass me."
Dee started to cry as she told the veteran RTE presenter what happened next.
"I don't want to go into really graphic detail because it's really upsetting but I could see by their actions that they were basically butchering the dog," she said.
"I couldn't get out of the car...I had my three-year-old daughter and I couldn't leave her."
Dee's little girl started to wonder if something was wrong with the dog as she could see her mother was visibly distressed.
She was also approached by one of the young men who asked if she was watching.
Dee said that she has seen similar unspeakable acts of animal cruelty in the area that she passes through everyday.
She said: "I see the horrors that go on...even in broad daylight."
