Farmwatch hid cameras in the shed earlier this year. It alleges over a month-long period it recorded a male sharemilker routinely hitting and beating cows, at times with a metal pipe.
RNZ: ‘The farm monitoring group that took hidden camera footage showing a Northland sharemilker hitting cows with a steel pipe says MPI (Ministry of Primary Industries) is “incompetent when it comes to animal welfare issues”. Farmwatch hid cameras in the shed earlier this year. It alleges over a month-long period it recorded a male sharemilker routinely hitting and beating cows, at times with a metal pipe. The group has not named the farm or the sharemilker, but said the footage has been handed over to the MPI. MPI is now investigating the farm…
Farmwatch spokesperson John Darroch said MPI was only acting because the animal rights group had gone public with the footage… Mr Darroch said Farmwatch only put hidden cameras in the milking shed because a farm worker, who had witnessed the abuse and complained about it to MPI, was told they could not prosecute without video footage and the case was being closed… Mr Darroch said two people went to MPI, including an ex-worker. He said MPI went to the farm and spent about half an hour there before the cameras were installed. “They came back and told the whistle-blower that quote ‘the farmer is a nice guy’. “They had specific knowledge of exactly what was going on, and they closed the investigation despite that’. SOURCE…
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