RSPCA blames absentee farmers for 'rash of neglect'

The Royal Society for the Protection of Animals is blaming "absentee farmers" for a rash of cases involving livestock that have been left to die in harsh conditions this winter.

The animal welfare society's Canterbury branch staff say they have dealt with more than 60 cases of livestock neglect since July, involving about 1000 animals, from sheep and calves, to pigs, deer and horses.

About 500 of the animals had suffered serious neglect.

RSPCA Christchurch shelter manager Geoff Sutton said today the rash of farm neglect cases in his district, which runs from Darfield in Mid Canterbury north to Kaikoura, was the worst he'd seen in 14 years.

Staff had found stock "totally emaciated, dying from starvation and hypothermia" and either dead or requiring euthanasia. Many were in muddied paddocks bereft of any feed.

Mr Sutton said given the harsh conditions facing farmers this winter he suspected the Canterbury situation to be mirrored across the country.

"It happens from time to time and we tend to brush it off and say 'oh well, the conditions have caught them out'. "Well sorry, but that just doesn't wash any more."

However, Federated Farmers today denied that animal neglect was widespread among professional farmers, saying the problem was likely to be confined to amateurs, and others genuinely hit by the "winter from hell".

Mr Sutton said one farmer had been charged with neglect and others were likely to face charges. Offenders faced fines up to $25,000, six months' jail, or both.

Neglect cases, he said, involved both well-established farmers and newer lifestylers but the society's biggest concern was "absentee owners" - people living away from where they were grazing animals.

"They're not there every day," Mr Sutton said.

"It's easy to make the excuse that it's been the worst winter in 30 years. Maybe it is, but is that a reason to have animals dying in quantities this late after the snow?"

Mr Sutton blamed "ill-prepared animal owners who either can't afford or haven't got the reserves to put their stock onto good tucker".

He acknowledged there were "good farmers out there doing what they've always done and doing it well" who recognised the problem and supported the RSPCA stance.

He urged farmers to "start making some provision for the possibility this (weather) could go on for another couple or three months".

Federated Farmers national president Charlie Pedersen said farmers throughout the country, especially those in the South Island who had suffered the "winter from hell" would be running short of feed at the stage of the year.

"Sadly it is most often the non-commercial farmers who get caught out by their inexperience and find themselves in these circumstances," he said.

Most responsible livestock farmers aimed to have 18 months of supplementary feed on hand as a buffer.

Mr Pedersen said he had difficulty with Mr Sutton's description of lifestylers and absentee owners as "farmers".

"They are people who live in town and play at being farmers and I seriously object to professional farmers being caught up in the sort of allegations Mr Sutton is making."

Mr Pedersen urged the RSPCA to prosecute all offenders. "It's no good just saying (this is happening)," he said.

"Anyone who's in that position now, unless they have a very solid message given to them, they'll be in that position again some time."

Mr Pedersen said the three prosecutions the RSPCA had initiated to date didn't appear to be great compared with the number of Canterbury farmers under stress at this time of the season.

- NZPA