An Oamaru dairy farmer has been fined $2500 and ordered to pay $500 for mistreating a cow.
Philip John Wilson, of Parautika Farms Ltd, pleaded guilty to the charge in the Oamaru District Court last week after a dairy cow he shipped to the Alliance Group Mataura meat works on February 23 last year was determined to have cancer of the eye and was euthanased when it arrived at the plant.
The cow was one of nine beasts shipped on the day from the farmer’s 850-cow herd. It had been separated from the milking herd after Wilson noticed the cow had a "hazy eye", on January 20, 2016, Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) documents show.
At the end of the four-hour trip to the meat works, pus was leaking from the animal’s eye and its wound had become foul-smelling.
The meat works’ attending vet called the ailment chronic and said it would have developed over months.
The court heard Wilson had asked for a veterinarian’s opinion on the cow, but the visual inspection from a distance before the cow was transported had been insufficient.
The charge carried with it a $50,000 maximum fine and up to 12 months’ imprisonment.
Defence lawyer Michael de Buyzer argued Wilson had made contact with a vet and had tried to assist in the animal’s recovery. The incident was "unfortunate", but Wilson’s actions were not deliberate.
Judge Joanna Maze noted this was Wilson’s first animal welfare offence.
She accepted the state of the animal was probably different from when it left Wilson’s care and MPI accepted the cow probably received an injury during transportation. Wilson was fined $2500 and ordered to pay $500 to MPI for a vet report that was undertaken after his initial not-guilty plea.
