A judge said yesterday the Minister for Agriculture required co-operation from farmers to eradicate animal diseases such as brucellosis and TB. "Any lack of co-operation has consequences which go far beyond individual cases," Judge Terence Finn warned at Listowel District Court.
Three farmers were convicted of moving animals contrary to the Diseases of Animals Act 1996.
Eamon Maher, who has since left farming, admitted 15 offences. The court heard 40 animals may have wandered across a river to lands belonging to Eamon Maher's brother, Bartholomew. The animals were tested for brucellosis while in his brother's yard and moved by Eamon Maher to a holding he rented near Castleisland before the results were known. Fourteen of the animals had brucellosis and all of them were then destroyed.
Eamon Maher was fined £5,600 plus witness expenses of £3,000. Bartholomew Maher, described as "a substantial farmer" of Trieneragh, Duagh, Listowel, pleaded guilty to selling three animals without the proper identification and was fined £1,200, with £2,500 witness expenses.
John Paul Kelly (38) of Upper Scrahan, Duagh, was fined £2,000, with £600 witness expenses, for not having the proper identification for three animals he bought from Maher and of selling them on. Judge Finn found "Mr Kelly operated openly throughout" and had sought to rectify the situation when he became aware of it.