Thursday, 08 October 2015 15:44

Farmer jailed for animal cruelty

Written by Rural News Group

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Former farm manager Michael James Whitelock was been jailed for 4 and a half years and disqualified from owning animals for 10 years after pleading guilty to animal cruelty.

Whitlock broke the tails of 200 animals on a Landcorp farm he was managing.

Ministry for Primary Industries animal welfare manager Peter Hyde describes the Westport farmer’s abuse of dairy cows as “horrific”.

Four and a half years imprisonment is believed to be the longest imprisonment sentence handed down for animal welfare offences involving farm animals.

The next largest sentence was 2 years and 1 month handed down to a Waikato farmer in 2013.

Hyde says acts of deliberate cruelty involving farm animals are very rare.

"Deliberate cruelty is unacceptable to all right minded people. This was one of the worst cases of cruelty MPI has dealt with. We take this sort of offending very seriously and the sentence indicates that the court clearly does too." he says.

Three other offenders have previously been sentenced to significant periods of community detention and community work and disqualification in relation to this case.

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