A Coromandel farm owner and property developer and his farm worker have been convicted of deliberately breaching a court imposed disqualification order under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.



Philip Peacock was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court last week to 300 hours community work and disqualified from being the owner of, or exercising authority over, farm animals for three years.
In June, farm owner Lance Burt was sentenced to six months home detention and 100 hours community work.
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry investigations manager Greg Reid says the two defendants actively conspired to disguise the fact Philip was acting in contravention of a disqualification from owning or having custody or control of animals that was imposed in 2006.
He says as a consequence of Philip being in charge of animals, ongoing mistreatment of cattle occurred.
'Mr Peacock knowingly flouted a court order and actively carried on farming in breach of the disqualification.
'Not only did his employer permit him to do so, despite becoming aware of the disqualification order, Mr Burt adopted various tactics to draw attention from the fact that Mr Peacock was exercising authority over these animals.”
He says tactics include the rewriting and replacement of Philip's initial employment contract and the issuing of a trespass notice to the farm worker who had informed MAF about the situation.
In 2006, MAF prosecuted Philip for the ill treatment of cattle. He pleaded guilty to 56 charges under the Animal Welfare Act and disqualified from owning or exercising authority of animals for five years.
In July 2008, Philip was employed by Coromandel Dairy Trust Limited director Lance Burt and during his employment he carried out farm duties including moving and feeding stock, calving of cows and supervision of farm staff. Within a month of his employment he moved into a management role where staff queried his farming decisions on a number of occasions.
These decisions included the failure to attend to ‘downed' cows which later died, and the death of cows as a result of them being inappropriately calved with a farm tractor.
One of the workers on the property subsequently became aware that Philip may have been disqualified from owning or exercising control over animals and contacted MAF.
'Both defendants have learned that disqualifications will be enforced by the Ministry. Flouting the law and poor animal husbandry are unacceptable and will always be treated seriously by MAF.”