A Waipukurau pet food company and its former manager are on trial for sending 60 sheep that had hormone treatment to a meat company to be slaughtered and exported for human consumption.
Medallion Petfoods faces a fine of up to $500,000 and former employee Charles Gordon Murdoch a fine of upto $100,000 or five years' imprisonment if convicted. They are charged under the Animal Products Act for altering an Animal Status Declaration.
The Food Safety Authority, prosecuting in the Waipukurau District Court, said the sheep were part of an experiment at AgResearch's Ballantrae Hill Country Research Station near Woodville.
They were sent to Medallion (formerly Total Petfoods) on February 10 by Ballantrae farm manager John Napier to be killed the next day.
Mr Napier sent an animal status declaration form with the sheep. On the bottom of the form he wrote "For dog tucker only".
He did not fill out the form correctly and failed to tick a box that stated the sheep were to be used for petfood only.
At the time there was no legal requirement for sheep being sent for petfood to be accompanied by a special declaration. That has now changed.
The prosecution said that when Murdoch forwarded the sheep to Frasertown Meat Company he photocopied the declaration with a piece of paper covering the "dog tucker" comment.
