Farmer banned 10 years from owning livestock and fined $60,000

After lodging an appeal in the Melbourne County Court against his 2020 sentence for animal cruelty, Cooma dairy farmer, John Hall, was recently resentenced and fined $60,000.

Mr Hall's original 10-year disqualification order from being the owner or person in charge of any farm animal was also reinstated.

Mr Hall pleaded guilty to charges of failing to provide proper and sufficient feed to his herd of 155 cattle, failing to comply with a notice issued by an authorised officer and five separate charges of aggravated cruelty to eight cows.

Agriculture Victoria Animal Health and Welfare Compliance Manager Daniel Bode said the dairy farmer was previously convicted for similar offending in 2017.

"In this case Mr Hall had again failed to comply with a notice under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986 and failed to provide adequate care to his stock," Mr Bode said.

He said apart from the obvious pain and suffering of the animals, animal welfare breaches may affect all producers by jeopardising Victorian farmers' reputations as responsible food producers who work to ensure their animals are well cared-for and treated humanely.

"This is a reminder to all livestock producers that animal cruelty will not be tolerated by the Victorian Government or the community."

/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.