A Palmerston North sheep farmer has been disqualified indefinitely from being in charge of animals and fined $13,000 for failing to treat flystrike and meet the welfare needs of hundreds of sheep.
Alasdair Donald Currie (65) was sentenced in the Palmerston District Court on the 15th of October on six charges under the Animal Welfare Act following a successful prosecution by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).
Following a complaint in February 2023, MPI sent an animal welfare inspector and a veterinarian to the farm to inspect his animals. They found some sheep recumbent or dead and others affected by fly strikes—two of them had to be euthanised.
The farmer was directed to muster all sheep and take action to address a range of animal welfare issues, including shearing all woolly ewes to prevent flystrike.
In April, an animal welfare inspector and veterinarian returned to the farm and found Currie had failed to address the flystrike effectively. Some sheep were still in full wool, and 48 sheep had either died or had to be euthanised.
"Overall, 118 sheep were found to be affected by flystrike out of a mob of about 450. Our veterinarian found at least 70 of these sheep were in unnecessary pain and distress because Mr Currie failed to act as directed," said MPI regional manager of Animal Welfare and National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) Compliance, Gray Harrison.
"This was aggravated by Currie admitting that he had not provided his sheep with any flystrike preventative during the 2022-2023 season. The welfare of animals is our number one priority, and when we find evidence of deliberate neglect – we will take action."
Other animals were affected by parasites such as worms, and a lamb with a severed Achilles tendon, which occurred during crutching, had to be euthanised.
Animal welfare is everyone's responsibility. MPI strongly encourages any public member to be aware of animal ill-treatment or cruelty and report it to the MPI animal welfare.
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