Department hit squad moves in

By John Shirley

There are increasing concerns over the activities of the Special Investigation Unit within the Department of Agriculture.

Another case of the unit going into a farm, taking out cattle and slaughtering them without compensation and without the opportunity to appeal has come to the attention of the Farmers Journal. This farmer and others are planning to sue the Department for the value of the confiscated animals and other losses involved.

Solicitor Oliver Ryan-Purcell, acting for one of the farmers, said that Irish farmers are not being dealt with in accordance with European law procedures.

In the latest case to come to light, nine cows were lifted from the farmer two weeks ago and slaughtered in Glynn's in Patrickswell, Co Limerick five days later.

The farmer, who had been accused of tampering with the tags on the nine animals, protested his absolute innocence but to no avail. Research carried out by the IFJ on this farmer, whom we are not naming for reasons of his privacy, show him to be an individual of honesty and integrity, a good neighbour and extremely hard-working. There was no visible benefit to this farmer from switching or tampering with tags.

Incredibly, an SIU official also threatened the farmer with fines of €1500 a cow slaughtered and six months in prison.

His case arose when a neighbouring herd to this farmer, from which he had purchased four cows, went down with BSE. Department officials visited the herd with four tag numbers supposedly related to the four cohort cows to those in the BSE herd. However, one of the tag numbers was that of a cow that had been born and reared in the farmer's herd. This looked like a Department of Agriculture error.

However, the Department official claimed that the tag on this cow was tampered with. The whole herd was then examined and the 15 cows had their tags cut out and were retagged with Department pink tags. The accusation from a member of the SIU was that the farmer had tampered with these 15 tags. The tags were taken away for forensic examination. The result of this was that six cows were cleared and the cards returned but the Department used their emergency powers, which were strengthened during the recent FMD period, to impound the other nine cows. They were seized from the farm by the Department and transported by Barney Dillon, a haulier from Kilbeggan.

In response to Department demands for "proof of identity on the cows'' a statutory declaration was made on behalf of the farmer that they were either born on the farm or purchased from a known source. But this was to no avail.

The farmer tried in vain to see the cows and ensure that they were being milked. One was on the point of calving. He believes that they were finally brought to Glynns for slaughter five days after they were lifted on August 19.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture refused to comment on the case saying that they did not comment on individual cases. However the spokesman denied any welfare problems while the cows were in their custody. He added that they were milked.

The farmer is now in the process of suing for compensation for the losses involved. He added: "If I lie down and don't fight this I'm labelled a convict.''

The Journal knows of two other farmers who suffered similar seizures of cattle without compensation. One in Tipperary is also suing the department. The other in Kilkenny is looking for justice through the Ombudsmans office.