JONATHAN DOW Dairy farmer Allan Crafar, whose company was fined last month after 20 cows were found dead and others starving at Te Pohue, is again being investigated for alleged animal neglect. A spokesman said the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) was investigating Mr Crafar's properties. He could not say wherethey were because he did not want to jeopardise the investigation. MAF received about 1000 complaints of animals being ill-treated each year. An anonymous man, who worked on a farm owned by Mr Crafar at Taharua, on the Napier-Taupo road, said 25 cows had died from cold and starvation in one night. Mr Crafar said the people hired to manage the farms were the problem. "I basically consider myself the union delegate for cows. As the union delegate for cows I consider humans to be dumb animals and unfortunately they do a lot of dumb things and the only thing I have ever done is trust humans to do the right thing," he said. In September 2004 SPCA and MAF investigators visited the farm in Berry Road, Te Pohue, and found 23 cows dead from starvation or neglect and had to destroy 13 more. The farm manager Phillip William Peacock, 35, admitted 56 cruelty charges last month and has been sentenced to 300 hours community work, ordered to pay $750 toward the cost of one of the ministry's biggest investigations, and barred from having anything to do with farm animals for five years. Peacock was initially charged alongside farm owner Te Pohue Ltd, directors Allan and Frank Crafar and off-site farm operations manager David Wiltshire. Charges against the Crafars and David Wiltshire were withdrawn and Te Pohue Ltd eventually changed its plea and admitted 49 charges. It was fined $9800 and ordered to pay $750 court costs. Mr Crafar did not return calls from Hawke's Bay Today.
