A Waikato farmer has been fined $3900 for not registering 152 cattle, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) reports.
According to MPI, Waitomo sheep and beef farmer Brian Anthony Murphy, 67, was sentenced at the Te Kuiti District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to three charges of failing to register the cattle.
“We certainly take it very seriously. Our ability to track and trace cattle and deer through the NAIT system is a critical factor in managing biosecurity threats which could have a devastating impact on New Zealand’s agricultural sector,” said Gray Harrison, the national manager of animal welfare and national animal identification and tracing compliance at the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The maximum penalty for those charged under the NAIT act has recently been upped to $100,000.
“This latest sentencing follows a number of recent NAIT-related convictions. People who want to take short cuts need to be aware we will continue to identify and address non-compliance.”
In July, Taupō dairy farm manager Raymond Arthur Griffin was fined $3600 for failing to register more than 1000 animals. And a Northland deer farmer was fined $3250 over his failure to put NAIT tags on 70 of his deer, MPI reports.
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