Costs $295,488 for cruelty
From the December 2008 edition of Agriculture Today.
A Pilliga farmer was found guilty of 48 counts of aggravated cruelty and 48 counts of failure to provide proper and sufficient food in Narrabri Local Court recently.
The magistrate placed Ruth Downey on a good behaviour bond. She was also ordered to pay $295,488 in costs.
RSPCA inspectors first visited Mrs Downey’s property in February 2007, following a complaint from the public regarding the extremely poor condition of a number of cattle.
Advice and additional visits to the property to encourage Mrs Downey to improve the deteriorating condition of her stock were made in a bid to improve the situation.
She refused to accept advice and recommendations to improve the animals’ health, including written feeding instructions from NSW DPI and the RSPCA.
Most of NSW was in drought at the time.
The RSPCA said "regrettably this course of action could have been avoided if Mrs Downey had taken proactive advice on board, given by the various agencies earlier".
The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) administers the State Government’s Drought Transport Subsidies that are designed to protect the welfare of livestock by reducing the costs to primary producers, by providing rebates on livestock transport during the drought.
NSW DPI will rebate 50 per cent of the transport costs for movements of:
- water for domestic use;
- water and fodder for stock;
- stock to and from agistment, and
- stock to sale/slaughter.
Rebates apply to primary producers in a drought-affected area of NSW.
Contact the drought hotline (1800) 814 647 for more information.
