A smallholder has been banned from keeping livestock for ten years after failing to remove rotting carcasses from her land and failing to care for pigs.
Nottinghamshire County Council Trading Standards prosecuted the smallholder from Torworth near Retford, Nottinghamshire.
The case involving Gemma Ruth Slinger came before Mansfield Magistrates Court on June 16th, 2022,
It came to light when officers from he council found carcasses of a goat and pig on her land.
The court heard these had been left rotting and decomposed to skin and bone.
The law states that carcasses must be collected without undue delay to prevent risks to public and animal health.
Trading Standards Officers, accompanied by Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) Veterinary Officers, also found malnourished pigs.
They were “rooting around on the land for food as there was no feed or water available”.
In addition, officers found chickens roaming around the land. The court heard were told they were exposed to the risk of catching avian influenza despite national measures regarding housing poultry.
These conditions were found, despite advice and support from Trading Standards, to help the smallholder comply with her legal obligations, protect her animals, and prevent the spread of disease.
Fine and animal ban
In court, she was sentenced after pleading guilty to several welfare and animal by-product offences.
The judge issued a ten-year ban from keeping farmed livestock and ordered her to pay a fine of £350.
Councillor John Cottee, Cabinet Member for Communities at Nottinghamshire County Council, said:
“This case should serve as a warning to others that the council will not tolerate a lack of safeguarding of farm animal health and welfare.”
He said: “Causing unnecessary suffering to animals such as the pigs found in this case is unacceptable.”
“Where we find a disregard for these requirements, we take formal action. Failing to house chickens and remove animal carcasses as found in this case risks spreading disease and, as a result, poses a risk to animal and human health,” Cottee concluded.
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