A swan has attacked and killed a dog in a park in Dublin.
The cocker spaniel was swimming in the pond at Bushy Park, in Terenure, near a group of swans and cygnets when one of them broke away and headed towards the dog.
“We started screaming at the swan, trying to distract it,” a man who was feeding the ducks at the time told the Irish Times.
“The poor dog didn’t realise what was going on and swam straight for the swan.”
The man said the swan attacked the dog, beating it “with one wing and then the other”.
He said: “That stunned the poor thing. Three or four more slaps and she was gone.”
The attack was over in a few seconds and was extremely upsetting to witnesses, he said.
He added that the dog’s owner was so distraught his phone fell into the pond.
“They need to put up signs telling people to keep their dogs on leads around the pond. The swan was just protecting its cygnets,” he said.
Dublin City Council park rangers arrived to retrieve the dog’s body from the water.
“I have never heard of anything like this happening before,” Peter Duignan, one of the park rangers, told the Irish Times.
The council has said it will erect temporary signs to warn people about the dangers of dogs entering the pond.
“Swans are wild birds and while it was only protecting its young, it led to an unfortunate outcome due to the dog swimming in the pond,” a spokesperson from Dublin City Council told The Journal.
“Temporary signage will be put up to alert people of the danger of dogs entering the pond.”
Last year, a dog mauled a swan to death in Skerries, north of Dublin.
The bird, known locally as Mr Cob, had to be put down after the attack.
