Wednesday, 27 January 2021 11:00

Any charges?

Written by The Hound

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

Your old mate wonders if the over-reaching do-gooder who set up a North Canterbury cow sanctuary “to save retired dairy cows and bobby calves from slaughter” will face any charges for animal cruelty.

‘Til the Cows Come Home’ was established in July 2017, to great media (mainstream fanfare), as a “safe haven for rescued farm animals”.

At one stage, some 200 cows were housed at the ‘sanctuary’.

However, an MPI investigation last year found that many of the ‘rescue cattle’ were sick, starving or in terrible condition – and a number had to be euthanised.

The person who ran the ‘sanctuary’ claimed: “I tried my hardest for so long, sleepless nights, stress beyond belief, full-time work, hours of feeding, cleaning...until it all came crashing down.”

All very sad, but any farmer who did the same thing would rightly be prosecuted by MPI – so let’s hope the animal welfare bureaucrats are consistent and file charges!

More like this

MPI defends cost of new biosecurity lab

The head of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) biosecurity operation, Stuart Anderson, has defended the cost and the need for a Plant Healht and Environment Laboratory (PHEL) being built in Auckland.

MPI’s Diana Reaich: Building global trade relationships

Relationships are key to opening new trading opportunities and dealing with some of the rules that countries impose that impede the free flow of trade.

Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Featured

Fonterra shaves 50c off forecast milk price

Fonterra has dropped its forecast milk price mid-point by 50c as a surge in global milk production is putting downward pressure on commodity prices.

BNZ: $10 milk price now unlikely for 2025/26 season

The chance of a $10-plus milk price for this season appears to be depleting.

Dairy farmers urged to focus on what they can control amid GDT drops

Keep focused on things that can be controlled on farm.

Rural Women NZ appoints new chief executive Sandra Kirby

Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) has announced Sandra Kirby will take over as the organisation's new chief executive.

Puro wins Supreme Award at Marlborough Business Excellence Awards

Puro, the country's largest cannabis cultivator, has won the Supreme Award at the Marlborough Business Excellence Awards.

Record RMA fine after repeated piggery effluent discharges

Rawhiti Environmental Park Limited has been convicted on eight charges and fined a total of $437,000 for persistent discharges of raw piggery effluent into the environment between February and October 2023.