Farmer fined, banned from owning cows

When Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) inspectors attended Ireland’s Omimi property in September 2021, following on from a series of local complaints, there were around 60 sheep and 150 cattle on farm. The inspectors found serious problems, including a lack of pasture and supplementary feed and six dead cattle lying in various areas of her land. Veterinarians concluded these cattle were underweight and would have suffered prolonged pain and suffering before death.

Six pregnant heifers also had to be euthanised as they were too small to calve without suffering pain, distress, and eventual death. Furthermore, when all animals were mustered a month later, four other emaciated cows were humanely euthanised.

MPI Regional Manager of Animal Welfare and NAIT Compliance, Murray Pridham, says that since 2013, MPI has intervened several times at this farm because of animal welfare issues. He says that previous attempts were made to better educate Ireland on how to look after the animals, but when no improvements were found, this was followed up by destocking of cattle.

However, Ireland continued to bring in more cattle, leading to worsening conditions and finally to September’s call out.

“It’s particularly disappointing to find such a poor situation when we’ve invested many hours and resources into trying to get Carolyn Ireland to do the right thing for her animals,” says Pridham.

Ireland was sentenced in the Dunedin District Court after pleading guilty to four charges under the Animal Welfare Act, including reckless ill treatment and ill treatment of animals following a successful prosecution by MPI.

She was fined $3,000 on each of the four charges along with being disqualified from owning or overseeing cattle for five years. She was also ordered to pay costs of $11,179 for vets, cattleyard hire, musterers and trailer hire.