A Manawatū farmer has been fined $8250 for keeping injured sheep alive and suffering unnecessarily when they should have been euthanised, and for failing to treat ill sheep.
Seventy-three-year-old Vernon Gledstone-Brown, who owns a 100-hectare sheep and cattle farm near Rangiwhaia, was sentenced at the Palmerston North District Court on Friday. He pleaded guilty earlier to four charges under the Animal Welfare Act.
The Ministry of Primary Industries said when its animal inspectors visited Gledstone-Brown’s farm in February 28, 2020, they found eight sheep suffering severe pain and distress because of flystrike.
The disease is caused by blowflies which lay eggs on the sheep. Maggots then eat the flesh of the sheep and cause it to fidget and its wool to fall out.
Gledstone-Brown was issued a written legal instruction to treat the sheep within one month. Inspectors found he hadn’t done so when they checked again on March 2.
MPI’s Joanna Tuckwell said three of these sheep had to be euthanised. Another ewe, in poor health and found stuck in a swamp, also had to be euthanised.
Inspectors also found two lambs with ruptures to their right Achilles tendons.
Tuckwell said Gledstone-Brown told inspectors the injuries were accidental, and happened about one month earlier as he was crutching them.
Gledstone-Brown told inspectors he planned to put the lambs “in the freezer”, but hadn’t yet done so because he was too busy and he was worried he and his wife might get poisoned if the labs developed an infection.
“If animals become injured, best practice is to attend to these injuries immediately and in cases with ruptured tendons, it is best practice to euthanise. These animals were suffering for a month – which is against the law,” Tuckwell said.
“Flystrike is painful and distressing for animals. It is also easily detected if animals are being monitored regularly. Animals with flystrike tend to exhibit behaviour that healthy sheep do not.”
She said there was “no excuse” for Gledstone-Brown’s neglect.
Gledstone-Brown was also ordered to pay Court costs of $723.40.
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