Warning: contains graphic images
An animal welfare organisation has released graphic photos of an horrific pit full of cow corpses found on a Northland dairy farm.
The open pit, filmed by Farmwatch, contained hundreds of bodies of cows and calves, some of which had their throats cut. Rats were also seen running over the rotting bodies and skeletons. Newshub has chosen not to show the most graphic images.
Last week Newsroom released footage of the sharemilker at the same dairy farm repeatedly hitting cows with a steel pipe during milking.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) visited the property earlier this year after other allegations of animal abuse, but animal welfare organisation SAFE says the can't have examined the pit.
"If MPI has made the effort to walk around the property they would have found the bodies and been able to examine them for injuries," SAFE spokesperson Hans Kriek said in a statement.
Last week, head of compliance Gary Orr said that MPI is unable to place hidden cameras on farms to gather evidence because the longest sentence for animal cruelty convictions is five years, rather than the seven years needed to employ undercover surveillance.
Mr Kriek noted that in addition to the questions over how and why these cows died, the pit was within metres of a stream, posing a danger of environmental contamination.
He says this puts the pit in breach of MPI's and Dairy NZ's guidelines, Northland Regional Council regulations and Fonterra's supplier agreement.
SAFE is calling for MPI to be stripped of its animal welfare responsibilities and for a fully-funded, independent Ministry of Animal Welfare to be created, as well as CCTV cameras to be placed in all dairy sheds and slaughterhouses.
Newshub has approached MPI for comment.
Newshub.
