Farmer's sentence for ill-treating cows 'farcical'

A farmer's sentence for ill-treating his dairy herd has been labelled farcical by a Northland Federated Farmers leader.

Alan William Summers, 63, was sentenced to 350 hours' community service, banned from owning cattle for two years and ordered to pay $4000 in costs last week after he admitted two charges of ill-treating an animal and a representative charge of ill-treating an animal.

However, the sentence has been labelled a farce and totally inadequate by Northland Federated Farmers dairy section chairman Bill Guest.

Mr Guest said the sentence was out of line with others handed out for animal mistreatment. It would not deter bad farmers.

Summers was charged after a July 2002 Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) investigation at his 161-hectare farm at Motutangi, 29km north-west of Kaitaia.

MAF officials took 386 cattle to a neighbouring farm, where 68 were shot immediately as they were close to starvation in what was believed to have been one of the biggest official slaughters in New Zealand. The remaining cattle were seized.

Summers is one of only two farmers in Northland banned from owning stock. The other, Lester Donald Reuben Johnstone, of Maungatapere, 12km southwest of Whangarei, was fined $34,000 and banned from owning stock for five years in 2003.

"I'm amazed that, when compared with Johnstone, whose case was not as bad as this one, Summers appears to have got off very lightly," Mr Guest said.

"A total of 68 cows had to be shot because of the way he (Summers) treated them, but what made this case unique is that Summers has not accepted responsibility for the condition of those cows and even now says if he had been left alone they would have been fine.

"Well, that's not the case because 68 were so bad when Maf did come in that they had to be shot," Mr Guest said.

"There was clear evidence from the vets and MAF that those cows were starving. Some of them were so skinny that I could see their unborn calves moving about inside them."

In court last Friday, Judge Graham Hubble said Summers would not be a suitable candidate for supervision because it was not in his nature to take instructions from anyone. Judge Hubble said Summers appeared arrogant and high- handed and still did not fully accept responsibility for what had happened.

Summers is now banned from owning, or exercising authority over, any cattle for two years. He is still allowed to own other animals and said outside the court that he would transfer ownership of his cattle to his wife, install his son as farm manager and work himself as a glorified farmhand.

He had been unrepentant about the case, saying that, if Maf had left him alone, things would have turned out fine and only "one or two" of the cattle would have died.

Summers has two previous convictions, from 15 years ago, for ill-treating animals. Summers said he only pleaded guilty to the charges after MAF offered a deal to drop charges of wilfully ill- treating the animals.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)