A Taranaki dairy farmer who broke the tails of 136 dairy cows has been fined $40,000 and put under intensive supervision.
Lane Rodney Wiggins was also found to have docked the tails of 26 cows.
The 53-year-old earlier pled guilty to two charges under the Animal Welfare Act and was sentenced in Hawera District Court yesterday.
On the first charge, relating to breaking the cows’ tails, Wiggins was fined $35,000. On the second charge, relating to docking the cows’ tails, he was fined $5,000.
His intensive supervision will last for two years.
"This condition means Wiggins will have an immediate inspection of his herd done by a professional nominated by MPI. He will then be required to have follow-up inspections every six months, at his own cost," the Ministry for Primary Industries said in a statement.
MPI animal welfare regional manager Joanna Tuckwell says there’s no excuse for the behaviour that led to these injuries.
“Even though farmers will sometimes use a cow’s tail to steer the animal where it needs to go, best practice is not to lift or twist tails. It takes excessive force to break a cow’s tail.
“The cows that Wiggins deliberately ill-treated would have been in considerable pain. This action was simply cruel and unnecessary,” she says.
MPI launched an investigation into tail breaks and tail docking at his farm in June 2018. Two MPI animal welfare inspectors and a veterinarian inspected the tails of 195 cows.
"The inspection found that 136 of 195 cows in his herd had broken tails. Of those, 111 of these tails had multiple breaks - between 2 and 6 per tail," MPI reports.
"Of note is the fact that 130 of the 136 cows' tails were assessed as having breaks in the mid or high sections of their tails. This section is the thicker part of the tail and would have required considerable force to cause a break."
Wiggins' explanation for the tail breaks was that he was under time pressure and that he had bent the tails while pushing the cows in the milking shed.
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