Guilty pleas justify cruelty charges: MAF

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officials say a farmer's guilty pleas vindicate its decision to lay criminal charges against him.

Northland farmer Alan William Summers yesterday pleaded guilty in the Whangarei District Court to a "blanket" charge of ill-treatment, and two charges of ill-treatment in relation to specific animals, MAF animal welfare team leader Earl Culham said.

He will be sentenced on March 11.

"The outcome of this case should send a clear signal to all farmers that there are enforceable standards of welfare that need to be complied with," Mr Culham said.

Summers was running a dairy milking herd of about 200 and more than 250 other cattle on a 162ha property at Motutangi, 29km northwest of Kaitaia.

When MAF was alerted to the situation in July 2002, officials visited Summers and urged him to feed the emaciated cattle, and find new pasture and supplementary feed for the herd.

Summers had been visited by MAF in October 1998. He was warned about the condition of a smaller number of cows and was able to improve their condition.

But in July 2002, MAF killed 68 animals and seized 318.

Surviving animals were taken to a farm near Ruawai and fed dietary supplements.

At the time of the slaughter and confiscation of his cows, Summers said the episode was a "conspiracy".

Some of the animals were thin, he said, but they were not dying. Some had borne calves and had naturally lost some condition.

He said he had had enough food for the cattle.

Later, when Summers visited the Ruawai farm where the survivors were being rehabilitated, he said he was shocked and angry about the conditions in which they were being kept.

He visited the property with Mr Culham and Motutangi farmer Karen Davies, and said later that video film taken during the visit showed cows standing in mud, empty water troughs, derelict fences, an open rubbish dump in the middle of a paddock and a dead cow in one of the drains.

Ms Davies said at the time that Mr Summers had been "bloody disappointed" at the conditions in which his animals were kept. "There is no quality pasture, many of the paddocks have been cropped recently, and the growth is more weed than grass."

Mr Culham defended the conditions, saying that after a wet winter there was mud on any farm and torrential rain the evening before Summers' visit had exacerbated the problem.

Whangarei District Court Judge Thomas Everitt ruled in November 2002 that MAF could sell the cows to recover costs.

But in February 2003, the High Court overturned that decision after Summers' lawyers said it was effectively a forfeiture - a power available only after a trial and conviction.

Justice O'Regan ruled in the High Court that some animals could be returned to Summers' farm, striking a balance between property rights and the welfare of the animals and recognising Summers' entitlement to the presumption of innocence before his trial.

Some animals were returned in April last year, and in January this year Northland Federated Farmers operations director Bill Guest claimed the ministry was "gun-shy" over prosecuting animal welfare matters after spending more than $350,000 on the Summers case.

The sum included fees for caring for confiscated cattle. "It would have been cheaper to shoot them," Mr Guest said.

But yesterday, Mr Culham said MAF took seriously all alleged animal welfare abuse brought to its attention "and the Summers case was no exception".

"Fortunately most commercial farmers have high standards when it comes to the care and welfare of their livestock, so these sorts of cases are quite uncommon."

- NZPA