A DISTRICT court judge told a Newcestown farmer that she wants to see ‘concrete evidence’ at the next court hearing that he is removing cows from his farm and looking at other farming options.
Judge Monika Leech was dealing with the case of Ger Canty at a recent sitting of Clonakilty District Court.
Mr Canty (67) with an address at Farnalough, Newcestown was convicted on November 21st 2023 of animal cruelty after inspectors found 17 dead calf carcasses decomposing on his farm.
He was convicted and sentenced to five months on three of six charges, suspended for two years, at a previous court sitting by Judge James McNulty, who described it at the time as ‘chronic, appalling, and wilful neglect’. Mr Canty was also directed to donate €10,000 to Concern and come up with a plan with the Department of Agriculture officials as to how he can continue to farm.
At the most recent court sitting, Meg Burke BL, representing the Department of Agriculture, told Judge Leech that Mr Canty’s sentences were suspended for two years but a special condition had been attached by the judge.
Mr Canty was directed to comply with all directions and instructions from the Department of Agriculture concerning his stock numbers, sale of animals and the care of animals that he will retain. Ms Burke added that he had agreed to no longer keep female animals and had signed an undertaking to that effect reluctantly and was asked to submit a farm plan to department inspector Edward Myers.
She said the department’s main concern would be that no more breeding animals would be kept on the farm. However, subsequent inspections indicated that Mr Canty was not abiding by the terms of the agreed farm plan.
She said that it appeared he was paying ‘no heed’ to the strict conditions and that the message just doesn’t seem to be landing on Mr Canty.
Ms Burke said that the Department of Agriculture would be satisfied if Mr Canty would just follow through on what he had agreed to do at his last court appearance.
She said their main concern is his ability and capacity to reduce stock significantly.
The court heard that on a recent visit to his farm on November 4th, inspectors found that there were 76 cows and 23 calves on his farm.
Ms Burke said that typically the rate of off-farm movements to the knackery were between 1% and 5% for an average farm but it was far higher with Mr Canty.
‘In 2021, 38% of off-farm movements from Mr Canty’s farm went to the knackery, while in 2022 it was 68% and in 2023 it was 23% and 24% in 2024,’ said Ms Burke.
She said her application was to revoke the suspended sentences, pointing out that even if Mr Canty was to follow through with the Department’s instructions there are ‘systemic problems’ at the farm.
‘The Department has engaged with him for six years and it’s a last resort,’ said Ms Burke.
Solicitor David O’Meara told Judge Leech that his client lives on the farm with his partner and asked the court to give him ‘one more chance’ as farming is all he knows.
He said Mr Canty had suffered health issues and is in a much better place than three or four years ago.
‘He’s very anxious to co-operate and he’s an old-fashioned farmer and I do appreciate he has undertaken to depopulate his herd,’ said Mr O’Meara.
Mr O’Meara added that his client’s herd had suffered from an outbreak of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) which resulted in the high number of calves going to the knackery.
He said Mr Canty had undertaken a vaccine programme for this herd and was willing to engage with an agriculture consultant.
Judge Leech said Mr O’Meara was effectively asking the court to ignore the previous court order and let him do what he wants.
‘The terms and conditions of the suspended sentence were very clear and Mr Canty had completely failed to comply with it and from what you are saying he has no intention to comply with it,’ said Judge Leech.
Department of Agriculture senior inspector Edward Myers told the court that he has been dealing with Mr Canty since 2017. He said he first visited his farm in April 2022 because there had been no new birth of calves registered with the department that year.
When he visited the farm he found a total of 17 dead calves with some of them having been scavenged by dogs. The sheds were dirty and there was no clean bedding available for the live calves, who were untagged and free to roam.
Mr Myers instructed him to dispose of the dead animals and sell the remainder of his herd. However, when he visited the farm in February of last year, he found another six dead and decomposing animals on Mr Canty’s farm.
‘He has a long history of failing to comply,’ said Mr Myers, who added that his main concern is for the welfare of the animals on the farm.
The court heard that on his most recent visit to the farm on November 4th, Mr Myers noticed that there were 76 cows including 21 heifers under 12 months and two calves under six months.
He said he was concerned that Mr Canty had so many replacement females at the farm and that probably most of them were in calf.
He added that based on Mr Canty’s track record and the unclean calving shed it is more than likely that about one third of the calves born on the farm will die.
Mr Myers said there appears to be an ‘unwillingness to change’ on Mr Canty’s part but he could choose other options like renting his land, keeping dry cattle, or tillage farming.
He said that Mr Canty told him in January of this year that a proposed plan was not his and he wasn’t going to abide by it. The judge noted that there would be nothing to be gained from jailing Mr Canty and asked Mr Myers to write a very specific letter to him at the very earliest opportunity to ask him to focus very seriously on the options available to him.
She said she expects to see ‘concrete evidence that realistic efforts are being made’ by Mr Canty to remove the female animals and look at other options and adjourned his case to December 19th.
