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Livestock Manager charged with ill-treatment of sheep

Thursday 22 April 2010, 8:14AM

By Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

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GISBORNE

Stock agent and trader Neville Clark was today sentenced in the Gisborne District Court for ill-treating sheep in his ownership and care. He was fined $11,000, and ordered to pay $9,700 in costs.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) Enforcement Director Jockey Jensen says "This isn’t a case of a farmer caught out by a seasonal event like drought – it is one where he has made a conscious decision to place large numbers of vulnerable sheep into an entirely unsuitable area."

"The standard of care in this case was well below and far removed from what the majority of reasonable and prudent farmers would do. This conduct impacts on the reputations of the majority of farmers in New Zealand, who are good farmers that take the welfare of their animals seriously."

Mr Clark took out the grazing lease on a plantation block of pine trees south of Gisborne in March 2008, purchasing and stocking it with about 1500 sheep. A few months later, an investigation was carried out by MAF after an initial inspection by the local SPCA on part of the block revealed numerous dead and poor condition sheep.

An initial assessment of the property revealed a large number of dead sheep in various stages of decay, live sheep in very poor condition and some so weak and emaciated that they were unable to stand. Pasture of any quality was non existent and a fuller inspection the next day found sheep needing to be euthanased.

Mr Clark said he knew there were dead sheep on the property but maintained they had all died from facial eczema. He did not seek a veterinary diagnosis at any stage to confirm his suspicions.

A muster was organised (with the help of local farmers) to remove all the surviving sheep from the plantation. A number were euthanased and surviving sheep were found to be emaciated. Post mortems found signs consistent with severe and prolonged malnutrition and parasite infections, not facial eczema.

MAF issued instructions that any sheep remaining on the property after the muster had to be removed onto good feed within 14 days or put down if they could not be removed. This instruction was not followed, and Mr Clark’s explanation was that "it was too wet".

Just over 700 of the original sheep that had been placed in the forestry block were found alive, leaving more than half dead or unaccounted for. Mr Clark provided no explanation for the missing sheep.