A shepherd from the Witney area in Oxfordshire has pleaded guilty to 13 animal welfare and farming standards offences, including offences relating to the disposal of dead sheep in a muck heap.
Jonathon Simpson (38) – who trades as Jon’s Shepherding of Hunters Close Farm, Middletown, Hailey, near Witney – pleaded guilty to the offences at Oxford Magistrates Court following a prosecution brought by Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team.
The offences occurred between 2017 and 2022.
Simpson was sentenced to a 12 month community order, including completion of a 15 day rehabilitation requirement.
He was also ordered to pay £2,000 towards the prosecution’s costs, as well as already paying thousands of pounds for the removal of the muck heap and animal by-products.
Oxford Magistrates Court heard that Simpson had failed to comply with the restrictions on animal by-products, by disposing of a large number of dead sheep by burying them in a muck heap to rot and decay on land in Oxfordshire.
Oxfordshire County Council said Simpson also failed to keep adequate records that included a “failure to keep an up to date register of animals, a failure to record animal movements and a failure to maintain a record of veterinary medicines, detailing when they were purchased, administered, or disposed of”.
He also moved livestock without being an authorised and competent transporter.
Oxfordshire County Council’s head of trading standards, Jody Kerman, said: “We fully support our farming community and all those who work in it. The vast majority work to the highest standards.
“Those who seek to bypass the rules not only put the integrity of the food chain at risk but also gain an unfair advantage over hardworking farmers.”
Kerman said animal welfare legislation is “there for a very good reason” and its purpose is to control disease, protect animals and ensure the safety of the wider food chain.
“These offences put all that at risk. The lack of processes Simpson had in place risked the spread of disease, while also hindering traceability and attempts to contain any such outbreak.
“As the most rural county in the southeast of England, an uncontrolled animal disease outbreak would have a hugely damaging impact on peoples’ lives and on our local economy,” Kerman added.
