Farmer left dead cows to foul waterway

A farmer left 24 of his cows stuck in mud to starve, resulting in some decomposing bodies polluting waterways and contaminating watercress locals picked to eat.

David Craig, of Warkworth, was due to be sentenced this week on charges of discharging a contaminant and of failing to provide animals with proper and sufficient food and water, but his court date was put off until December.

Last year, the 48-year-old was warned by his farm manager that the 50ha of farmland along the Kaipara Coast Highway, on the northwest coast of Auckland, which he leased to use as a "run-off block" from his main dairy farm could not support many cattle. The manager was concerned about the lack of feed on the land.

Craig had placed on the land some non-productive animals such as non-milking cattle, pregnant cows and calves, a summary of facts said.

He had also purchased poor-quality stock and put them on the land.

During August and September last year a neighbour began to notice dead cows on the property.

On September 13, an SPCA officer found 24 dead cows, most of them lying in waterways decomposing.

They appeared to have been dead for more than a month.

The officer noted about 200 live cattle and of those, 30 were in poor condition and some were scouring.

On September 17, an Auckland Regional Council officer visited the farm and found 17 carcasses in waterways and nine on land.

Two were stuck in a muddy creek up to their necks and had live maggots on them, others had been placed in a rubbish dump, six were near a roadside drain next to watercress and one carcass was visible from the highway.

Two abatement notices were issued under the Resource Management Act, one requiring Mr Craig to remove all of the dead animals.

When the ARC officer returned about a week later some carcasses had not been moved, others had soil piled on top of them with animal limbs sticking out and some new carcasses had also appeared.