A long-running cruelty case involving a large number of livestock has finalised in the Adelaide Magistrates Court this afternoon, with both defendants convicted on charges of Ill Treatment of Animals.

The two mid-north farmers, brothers aged 67 and 71, were placed on two-year good behaviour bonds of $500, ordered to pay $6,600 in legal costs and prohibited from owning any animals other than a cat, a dog and some fowl.

Since 2012, RSPCA SA inspectors had responded to nine reports of welfare concerns for livestock on the defendants’ three properties, the last one in mid-November 2018, when a member of the public reported seeing 10 deceased cattle in a barren paddock. The caller also reported seeing approximately 20 cattle still alive but severely emaciated, and that some had broken through fences and were scavenging for food beside a road.

Due to the large number of animals involved and concerns for the personal safety of RSPCA Inspectors, RSPCA SA enlisted support from PIRSA (including a livestock vet) and SAPOL to attend all three properties and seize any surviving, emaciated animals.

Officials from the three agencies sighted approximately 50 dead cattle in paddocks across the three properties. Almost all surviving cattle were in such poor condition the attending PIRSA vet’s assessment was that they were at serious risk of imminent death. One bull was in such poor condition due to prolonged starvation and dehydration it was unable to stand, and was euthanased on-site under vet instruction.

An emaciated sheep with a severely overgrown fleece was also humanely euthanased on-site. The attending PIRSA vet estimated the sheep, which was also unable to stand, had been left unshorn for two years.

Seventy six cattle and 11 sheep were seized from the three properties and taken into RSPCA care. SAPOL also seized four firearms. (Approximately $27k was raised through the subsequent sale of the cattle, once they had recovered. This was awarded to RSPCA SA towards the $32k cost the charity incurred in the animals’ seizure and rehabilitation.)

In the Adelaide Magistrates Court today, the defendants pleaded guilty to all four charges of failure to provide appropriate and adequate food to their cattle and sheep.

RSPCA SA Head of Animal Welfare, Inspector Andrea Lewis, welcomed today’s outcome, saying the defendants had shown time and again that they were incapable or unwilling to provide adequate care to their farm animals.

“There has been a total absence of basic animal husbandry activities by these two farmers,” Inspector Lewis said.

“Aside from insufficient supplies of food and water, they failed to do routine care such as parasite treatment and herd management.

“This resulted not only in the physical deterioration of these animals, some to the point of death, but also indiscriminate mating of bulls with heifers that were not physically mature, with several heifers dying while calving.

“The death and suffering that we all witnessed on their properties when we seized surviving animals was simply horrific.”

It was the second time the two men had been prosecuted for cruelty relating to livestock. In October 2005, the two defendants pleaded guilty in the Tanunda Magistrates Court to ill-treating pigs and failure to comply with a Code of Practice. They were convicted and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Under SA’s Animal Welfare Act, the maximum penalty for animal cruelty is $20,000 or two years’ imprisonment. For an aggravated cruelty offence, the maximum penalty is $50,000 or four years’ imprisonment.

RSPCA South Australia is the state’s only animal welfare charity with inspectors empowered to prosecute animal cruelty under SA’s Animal Welfare Act.

Members of the public who witness animal cruelty or neglect are urged to immediately call RSPCA’s 24-hour cruelty report hotline on 1300 477 722.

 

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