Hedge Trimmers To Cut Horns
We all know farmers from the television don’t we?…perhaps a tad curmudgeonly but generally salt of the earth heroes dashing about wrapping towels around little baby lambs in a benign glow of altruism. Which is why it is odd that stories about cruelty to farm animals keep rearing their head throughout the history of meatismurder.info. Here is another one.
A farmer has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges after he admitted to chopping bull horns off with hedge loppers. Mark Arthur Atchison was fined $2700 in Morrinsville District Court yesterday for cutting off horns from six bulls that were in his care. The Hereford bulls were found with bloody horn stumps by a New Zealand Food Safety Authority veterinarian during a routine pre-slaughter inspection. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry investigations manager Greg Reid said the removal of horns in this manner would have caused the animals a great deal of pain, distress and suffering, including the days following removal. A search of Aitchison’s property by the vet revealed 14 cut off horn tips, after which he made a full admission, saying he had always used the hedge loppers to remove horn tips. “This sentence sends out a strong message that painful and barbaric procedures such as this are unacceptable,” Mr Reid said.
