Otago farmer fined and banned from owning cattle

Carolyn Sybil Ireland (age 55) 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 the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

Ireland was fined $3,000 on each of the four charges, along with being disqualified from owning or being in charge of cattle for five years.

She was also ordered to pay costs of $11,179.29 for veterinarians, cattle yard hire, musterers and trailer hire.

MPI regional manager, animal welfare and NAIT compliance, Murray Pridham, says most people in charge of agricultural animals do the right thing, ensuring they receive timely veterinarian care and plenty of quality feed.

“Carolyn Ireland failed these animals – something that was evident during our intervention,” Pridham says.

Ireland’s farm at Omini has approximately 60 sheep and had approximately 150 cattle when MPI inspectors attended the property in September 2021. They found serious problems including a lack of pasture, supplementary feed and six dead cattle lying in various areas of her land. Veterinarians concluded they were underweight and would have suffered prolonged pain and suffering before death.

Additionally, six pregnant heifers also had to be euthanised as they were too small to deliver a calf without suffering pain, distress, and eventual death.

Furthermore, in October 2021 when all animals were mustered, four other emaciated cows were humanely euthanised.

“Since 2013, MPI has intervened several times at this farm because of animal welfare issues. 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.

“When we find evidence of deliberate cruelty or welfare abuse – we will prosecute, and today’s sentence is the result of having exhausted all other methods of trying to improve animal welfare at her farm.”

Pridhamj says Ireland has been cooperative with an order to destock her property of all cattle.

In addition to the animal welfare offences, Ireland was also fined $3,000 for failing to register 21 cows into the animal tracing NAIT system.

MPI strongly encourages any member of the public who is aware of animal ill-treatment or cruelty to report it to the MPI animal welfare complaints freephone 0800 00 83 33.