Cruelty penalty 'too harsh' say farmers

Penalties in a Northland animal cruelty case against two farmers whose cattle were forced to swim through a flood have been slated as too harsh by Federated Farmers. However, the SPCA has hailed the case as setting an important legal principle to ensure farmers care for their animals properly.

Last month Bruce Riddell Jonson, 54, and Jan Dorothy Jonson, 49, were sentenced in Kaikohe District Court after being found guilty of breaching their obligations under the Animal Welfare Act.

Judge Russell Johnson fined them $2000 each and ordered they pay a total of $1900 in prosecution and SPCA costs, but the couple are appealing the sentence.

The charge was laid after a flood on the Jonsons' property at Rangiahau, in the Waihau Valley, south of Okaihau, in March 2003.

On March 26, 2003, the MetService issued a heavy rain warning for Northland and the next day the Jonsons were contacted by other local farmers warning them to move the cattle to higher ground.

They did not try to move the cattle until the next morning, by which time the land was almost submerged, all fences had disappeared underwater and the cattle and calves were swimming for their lives.

President of the Far North, Whangarei and Kaipara districts province of Federated Farmers, Denis Anderson, said penalties imposed on the two farmers were too harsh.

He said there was full support from Federated Farmers for an investigation to see if an appeal could succeed, as several farmers with many years' experience of flooding had total sympathy with the Jonsons' situation.

"The ability of SPCA inspectors to use public donations to prosecute individuals at great expense in situations where they have little knowledge or experience cannot be left to go unchallenged," Mr Anderson said.

SPCA national chief executive Robyn McDonald said: "The Jonson case was not one of deliberate cruelty but of carelessness and of a failure to act responsibly on the part of members of the farming community. The court has set a significant precedent concerning the treatment of such cases, by imposing a reasonably heavy fine on the accused."

Ms McDonald said there was no justification for claims the SPCA was an urban-based organisation.

"Inspectors involved in rural prosecutions are normally themselves residents of country areas, as was certainly so in this latest case. The complainants in this matter were five farmers who made complaints directly to the SPCA," she said.

The Jonsons did not want to comment.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)