Sheep farmer sentenced for animal welfare breaches

Alasdair Donald Currie (65) was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on six charges yesterday (15 October) under the Animal Welfare Act, following a successful prosecution by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

Following a complaint in February 2023, MPI sent an animal welfare inspector and a veterinarian to the farm to inspect his animals. They found some sheep recumbent or dead and others affected by flystrike – two of them had to be euthanised.

The farmer was directed to muster all sheep and to take action to address a range of animal welfare issues, including shearing all woolly ewes to prevent flystrike. In April, an animal welfare inspector and veterinarian returned to the farm and found Mr Currie had failed to effectively address the flystrike. Some sheep were still in full wool and a total of 48 sheep had either died or had to be euthanised.

“Overall, 118 sheep were found to be affected by flystrike out of a mob of about 450. Our veterinarian found at least 70 of these sheep were in unnecessary pain and distress because of Currie’s failure to act as directed,” says MPI regional manager animal welfare and NAIT Compliance, Gray Harrison.

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“This was aggravated by the fact Mr Currie admitted to us that he had not provided his sheep with any flystrike preventative during the 2022-2023 season.

“The welfare of animals is our number one priority and when we find evidence of deliberate neglect – we will take action,” says Harrison.

Other animals were affected by parasites such as worms and a lamb that had a severed Achilles tendon, which occurred during crutching, had to be euthanised.

Animal welfare is everyone’s responsibility and 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.