A north Yorkshire farmer has been banned from keeping livestock after an investigation carried out by officers of North Yorkshire Trading Standards found animals experiencing “appalling neglect and suffering” on his farm.
Hayden Fortune of Pyethornes Farm, Wigglesworth, Skipton, pleaded guilty to the animal health offences at York Magistrates’ Court last month and was sentenced yesterday (Tuesday, April 18).
He received a 12-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months and was ordered to pay £3,000 compensation and £1,000 towards costs.
The farmer was disqualified from keeping livestock, and this was suspended for 28 days to allow alternative arrangements to be made for livestock currently on the farm.
North Yorkshire farm
When officers from the trading standards animal health team visited Fortune’s farm, cattle and pigs were discovered living with no feed, water or dry bedding, and “numerous carcasses were left in various stages of decay around the pens, which still housed live animals”.
North Yorkshire Council said that, due to the conditions, it was not possible to identify the exact number of carcasses on site.
“To reach them all, officers would have had to climb over mounds of dead pigs and enter pens in which livestock were standing in knee-deep manure,” the council said.
It is estimated that the number of carcases exceeded 300.
Fortune was charged with offences under the Animal Welfare Act, including:
- Causing unnecessary suffering to pigs by exposing them to the carcases of others, maintaining them in flooded pens with lurid water, providing no dry area and a lack of feed and drinking water;
- Having a level of manure in the bovine area that made animal movement difficult, exposing cattle to the carcases of others, providing no dry area, and providing a lack of feed and drinking water;
- Housing animals in a dangerous environment with hazardous material, including sharp wood and metal.
‘Dystopian’ scenes of neglect
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for regulatory services, Cllr. Greg White, said that the scenes at Pyethornes Farm were “dystopian” in nature and the animals were subject to “appalling neglect and suffering”.
“Mr. Fortune’s abject failure to meet any reasonable standard of animal care and hygiene is totally unacceptable,” he said.
“In North Yorkshire, we are serious about maintaining good standards of animal welfare. We will always press for the toughest action against those who fail to meet their legal obligation to properly look after farm animals.
“We welcome the magistrates’ recommendation that Mr. Fortune should be prevented from keeping livestock in the future.”
