Cattle starved to death by farmer

A FARMER from Hever starved his cows to death – with one of them so malnourished its bone marrow wasted away.

Christian Allan, 53, of How Green Lane, appeared at Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court on Thursday last week facing three charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

APPALLING STATE: Calf AC1 had to be put down. The RSPCA gave the Courier more pictures which we have chosen not to publish because they are too distressing

The case follows the discovery of the cows by RSPCA staff who found them to be in an "extremely poor, emaciated condition".

Inspector Alana Chapman told the court she found a dead bullock and cow, and a sick calf which later had to be put down.

At a previous hearing, Pc Darren Ousby described the scene in the barn when he arrived.

"I saw two dead cattle lying in the mud," he said.

"There were a number of others down one end which were around a food trough and they looked very thin. I could see the rib cages and so on."

At the hearing The Whistlers Farm owner was found guilty of two of the three charges of neglect.

Peter Mellor, Chairman of the Bench, said: "We are considering an alleged offence of causing unnecessary suffering by failing to provide adequate nutrition to protected animals.

"The issues in this case are whether adequate nutrition was provided for the animals between the 2nd and the 23rd of August in 2008.

"I have heard the evidence from the witnesses.

"We didn't find the evidence of Mr Allan to be credible because of the differences in accounts."

Mr Mellor discussed the evidence of one witness who denied being asked to look after the male bullock, calf and female bovine.

He followed this by saying the man "had no reason to mislead the court".

"We accept that Mr Allan is an experienced herdsman who was responsible for the animals.

"However, he also admitted that some animals were in poor condition," said Mr Mellor.

The court heard that hay was available in feeders, as well as water, but this was not in reach of one of the cows when representatives from the RSPCA attended.

Mr Mellor said one of the creatures "showed a complete depletion of all body fat including bone marrow fat".

The animals involved in the case were given the names AC1, 2 and 3.

Mr Mellor said: "We find you guilty of the charges in respect of AC2 and AC3.

"We find you not guilty of the charge in respect of AC1 because we had no evidence of inadequate nutrition. It was put down as it was unlikely to recover."

The case was adjourned for reports and Allan will return to court on March 25 for sentencing.

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