SOUTH Dublin County Council (SDCC) is to be sued for €45,000 by a circus owner whose six rare llamas were stolen from a compound earlier this month.

However, according to sources, gardaí have been given an address in Northern Ireland where the animals are thought to be, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

The llamas, and three goats, belonging to the Australian 'Circus Sydney' caused mayhem when they ran loose on the M50 motorway in Dublin earlier this month.

The animals were then impounded by SDCC before disappearing from the Co Meath compound in which they were being held.

Alexander Scholl, the circus owner, said he had instructed his solicitor to begin legal proceedings in response to what he believed was a theft by animal rights campaigners.

"I don't want to wait anymore. I told my solicitor to go ahead and bring them (the council) to court to sue them for it. It's a big miss in the show," he said.

"They have to do something, the council. They have to replace them or give me money to replace them."

Scholl claims he has attempted to source new llamas but that it is difficult due to their special breed and training requirements.

"It's not only money for the llamas; it will take another two years on top of this to train them. I have to find them and bring this (trainer) over from Germany for another year to train them and it will cost big money."

Scholl believes that his animals were probably stolen by animal welfare activists who routinely target circuses and that by this stage they are likely to have been taken out of the country.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for SDCC said she was not aware of any pending legal action and that the matter was with the guards.

However, she defended the council's initial impounding of the llamas saying: "The kernel of this is that on the M50 if you have animals lose it's a huge risk to public safety. It was very fortunate in this case that there wasn't an accident."