Grazier fined $120K over cattle deaths
By Chrissy Arthur
Biosecurity Queensland says it has successfully prosecuted one of its largest animal cruelty cases and the fine handed out should act as a warning to others in the beef industry.
A grazier has been fined $120,000 for an offence under the Animal Protection Act.
Biosecurity Queensland's Craig Elliott says the case related to the transport of cattle last year from the Northern Territory to Charleville, in south-west Queensland, where 120 animals died during the journey or shortly after.
He says evidence found some of cattle were not fit to be transported.
"We haven't struck something of this scale previously. It was over 1,500 head of cattle," he said.
"They were moved to the Northern Territory to just outside of Charleville in January 2008.
"Now that was a distance of about 1,600 kilometres and they were moved in the middle of summer in a 24-hour period without any spelling during the transport."
Mr Elliott says the fine to the owner of the cattle should be a warning to others in the industry.
"This type of offence, when it involved a commercial decision to move cattle, does need some sort of penalty that does remove any commercial benefit that someone does gain by breaching their duty of care towards the cattle," he said.
"We do take it very seriously and we do act very promptly.
"Obviously there is the welfare of animals involved here which is one of our primary concerns."
Source: ABC Rural News

Regards
Andrea Lethbridge