Dorset Dairy Farm Fined £52k for Cattle Neglect

A dairy farm in West Dorset has admitted to failing to provide appropriate care for their cattle, which resulted in significant harm being caused to them. They were also on trial for a number of other claims involving the farm’s environment.

The company responsible for the running of Higher Kingston Russell Farm, Ireosa Ltd, was put on trial at Poole Magistrates Court back in September, waiting to receive their penalty after entering a plea of guilty to no less than seven crimes.

They were sentenced to pay £52,650, as well as a subsequent £6,186 to cover expenses for the prosecution.

In April of last year, police and a veterinarian from the Animal and Plant Health Agency went to check out the farm. They discovered three seriously ill and malnourished calves, along with unfit living conditions, unclean water troughs, and dirty feeding apparatus. There was one example of a cow who had a seriously damaged front limb that had gone three months without any medical attention. Another calf was discovered in a pasture with other animals, caught in wire, and had to be released.

A skull, cow bones, and dead calves in enclosures with living cattle were all discovered around the site.

This was not the first time officers from the Council’s trade standards division had been to Higher Kingston Russell farm. In fact, they had been going there for more than six years trying to progress welfare standards for the animals.

The farm has now had to revoke its Red Tractor designation for at least twenty-four months as a consequence of the officials findings at court.

Dorset Council Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services, Laura Beddow, said that their “Trading Standards team work with livestock keepers to improve the welfare of their animals, but when advice and basic animal husbandry is ignored, formal action can and does follow.”

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