Two Westport farmers have been ordered by the High Court to hand over 120 of their animals to the Department of Agriculture for slaughter to ensure they do not become available for human consumption because there is difficulty establishing the true identification of the animals.
Mr Patrick Kearns, Mitchfield, Westport and his son Mr John Kearns, Owenwee, Westport, have withdrawn their application for a continuing injunction restraining the Department seizing and destroying the animals. They had been granted the injunction in December last.
At a sitting of the High Court in Galway last week, Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, made an order against them, requiring them to release the 120 animals on or before June 24th, to make a contribution of €10,000 towards the cost of disposal of the animals and to pay all legal costs involved.
She also directed Mr John Kearns to allow the Department seize a number of unidentified Friesian bulls on his holding which the Department believe were illegally imported into the State.
In an original application to Galway Circuit Court last November, Department officials said they were seeking the destruction of the animals because the identification records relating to the animals were highly suspect.
The court was told the incidence of twin calves claimed by the father and son were up to 10 times higher than the county average and four times as many male calves than females were registered - males calves command a higher premium.
The Department also alleged there was an unusually high incidence of very early calving within the same herd and there were implausible calving intervals. One cow was registered as having given birth to a total of 10 calves over five years, all male, one of which was claimed to have been born eight months after the previous birth.
Other allegations were that twin calves were found to have too many or too few teeth for their ages and to have different numbers of teeth than their alleged twin offspring.
The investigators, who were part of the "Oxblood" operation set up to combat smuggling of cattle across the Border, found that one white Shorthorn calf was found to have been twinned with a black Aberdeen Angus and an identical ear tag number on one of the animals in the Kearns herds was found on an animal in Co Kildare.
A search of Mr Patrick Kearns's home uncovered a bucket containing three vice grips, modified for the purpose of removing cattle tags; a Herberholz cattle tagger for which use is solely restricted to official veterinary staff, and other materials used in the identification of farm animals.
Mr Louis Reardon, veterinary surgeon for the Department, told the hearing that in one case a cow born in February 1999 was stated to have had twin calves on May 14th, 2000. This would have meant the dam would have to have become pregnant at around six months old.
During the hearing, Mr John Kearns said both he and his father had correctly identified all the animals on their lands with the exception of baby calves which had not yet been tagged.
In cross examination, he said he could give no explanation for tags found at his father's house. They should have been buried when they were taken from cows that had died. He said he and his father owned or rented a lot of land around Co Mayo and he also had land rented in Co Meath.