WITH DEAD sheep being dumped in local rivers and rubbish strewn across the local countryside, there has been appeal to those responsible to have more respect for the county.
Noting a marked increase in dumping in his local area in recent times, Cllr Victor Warrington has appealed to those behind the littering and dumping to consider the impact their actions are having on both the local environment and the tourist industry.
Cllr Victor Warrington, who lives in the Fivemiletown area and attends church in Coonian, told the Herald that in recent weeks he had noticed a lot of littering and dumping along secondary roads in the area.
Even more recently, he noted there had been dead sheep dumped from a bridge over the Colebrooke River, while another carcass had been found just a mile up the road. The dead sheep were reported to DAERA and have since been removed.
Cllr Warrington appealed to those behind both the littering and those dumping the dead animals to think about what they were doing.
“At the end of the day, there is obviously a place to dispose of dead animals,” he said. “It’s obviously a system where there is an expense around it, but just dumping them in a river that runs to a vast area, is just not on.”
Stating that “as an animal lover” he found the animal dumping “inhumane”, Cllr Warrington noted the Colebrooke River flowed through a wide area of Fermanagh, and pointed out the harm such dumping could cause to local health.
“I know farmers are always going to have a problem with animals dying, but there are procedures in place you have to follow,” he said.
“Were they local, or from five miles or ten miles away? I don’t know. Sheep are not marked in the same way as cattle.
“It’s disappointing and sad, that they felt they had to do that.”
Last week, before the discovery of the dead sheep, Cllr Warrington has already noted a marked increase in littering in the same area, along quieter roads. He had contacted the Council’s environmental services team about the matter, and on just a single three-and-a-half mile stretch the team lifted 35 bags of rubbish.
Since the litter pick, Cllr Warrington said while littering at any time was never welcomed, he said it was particularly worrying coming into the tourism season.
“Fermanagh is a beautiful county, and there are some individual out there who are disrespecting that beauty by just throwing rubbish out willy-nilly, putting the window of their car down and just throwing it out,” he said. “It really was unbelievably bad.”
To read more.. Subscribe to current edition
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
