‘Overwhelmed’ Burren farmer escapes jail over 63 cattle deaths

A Burren farmer whose cattle herd suffered 63 fatalities over a winter period has escaped a jail term for the animals’ neglect.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford said that he accepted that father of three Ivan O’Driscoll (48) of Fanore More, Fanore, in north Clare became ‘overwhelmed” by the circumstances he faced.

Judge Comerford said that he accepted there was “no ill intent” on Mr O’Driscoll’s part or callous view that the animals should be treated in such a way because money could be made.

In October 2019, Mr O’Driscoll had 176 registered cattle on his lands after spending about €80,000, the proceeds of personal injury compensation, from a 2014 road traffic accident on new dairy calves.

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Counsel for Mr O’Driscoll, Patrick Whyms BL said that the spend “proved to be the worst thing possible” as Mr O’Driscoll became “overwhelmed”, having no experience in rearing dairy calves.

Mr O’Driscoll had taken over the running of the farm after his brother had died in a farm accident, and the O’Driscolls had cared for only suckler cattle before the €80,000 spend on the dairy calves.

Prosecution counsel Lorcan Connolly said 63 on-farm cattle deaths were recorded on Mr O’Driscoll’s lands in the winter of 2019-2020, including 27 carcasses found on his lands on April 1st, 2020. Photos were shown to the court of the carcasses in various stages of decomposition.

Mr Connolly said: “It was a model of farming that this man should not have embarked upon relative to his experience.”

In a report read out in court, Mr O’Driscoll’s vet, Joseph O’Loughlin said that Mr O’Driscoll failed “to dispose of the dead animals in a timely manner and this is unforgivable”.

He said: “The build up of corpses was extremely unsightly and created a health hazard.”

Judge Comerford said he accepted that Mr O’Driscoll had made a mistake in purchasing the calves, which had the consequence of a large number of cattle suffering. He said that due to the sheer number of cattle and levels of suffering, a suspended prison term was merited and imposed a one-year suspended prison term.

In a report read out by Mr Whyms, Mr O’Driscoll’s vet, Joseph O’Loughlin said Mr O’Driscoll had bought about 150 dairy-bred calves in spring 2019.

He said that, “deprived of their mother’s milk, they are susceptible to a large range of viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases ... Mr O’Driscoll purchased a large volume of veterinary medicines”, but these had little effect.

“I believe that at this stage, Mr O’Driscoll was doing his best for the animals but quickly became overwhelmed by the deteriorating situation.”