A Co Limerick farmer has become a “pariah” in his local community after he pleaded guilty to “one of the worst” cases of animal cruelty, a court heard.
Seamus Looby (68), of Raheen, Garryspillane, pleaded guilty to 173 offences, after large numbers of rotting and dead calves were found across 100 acres of his lands in 2022.
Looby had a previous animal cruelty-related conviction from 2018, when he was fined €1,150, ordered to pay €1,000 to the ISPCA and restricted from owning dogs.
Prosecuting counsel Lily Buckley said Looby pleaded guilty to 173 out of 318 charges of animal neglect, on a full-facts basis, in respect of hundreds of calves at his farm between March and September 2022.
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Buckley said that, on August 16th, 2022, Chris Normoyle, a Department of Agriculture veterinarian inspector, acting on a complaint, visited Looby’s lands and found “a distinctive smell of decomposing animals and evidence of animal cruelty and neglect”.
Buckley said Normoyle described how “in his 21 years’ experience it was, in his opinion, one of the worst cases of animal neglect”.
Arthur O’Connor of the investigations unit at the department gave evidence of finding large amounts of dead calves as well as calves in “severe distress”, some half-eaten by “scavengers”.
The calves that had clung to life were “severely dehydrated, grunting and panting” while others had their eyes pecked out.
The department “ended their suffering” through euthanising them humanely.
Calves that tried to access a stream on Looby’s lands “drowned” in the water as they were “too weak” to get out.
O’Connor agreed with Buckley that the calves were “totally neglected” as they needed to be milk-fed twice daily but did not receive their feed.
O’Connor said he found calf spinal cords, jawbones, hip bones and leg bones “scattered” across Looby’s farmland.
He said he also found the remnants of calves that appeared to have been burned. Looby denied any involvement in burning carcasses.
Looby told department officials that another man owned the calves and delivered them to his lands. He denied a claim by the other man that he was paid to look after the calves.
Looby admitted 67 counts of breaching a duty to protect animal welfare; 68 counts of breaching a prohibition on animal cruelty, in that he caused unnecessary suffering and danger to calves; 27 counts of failing to comply with an animal welfare notice arising from the Department of Agriculture investigation; and 11 counts of breaching EU regulations on animal byproducts.
Buckley said the department investigated the movement of 420 calves on to Looby’s farm by the other man.
Looby’s barrister, senior counsel Colman Cody, suggested Looby had been “manipulated” into keeping the calves on his land by another man, who was not before the court.
The court heard the other man allegedly took possession of the calves from farmers who were happy to part with the animals, as they were considered to be of low or no value.
The other man also allegedly fraudulently signed for the calves using another farmer’s signature without that farmer’s knowledge.
The man was supposed to pay for the calves’ feed but failed to do so after he ended up incarcerated in Wheatfield Prison on unrelated criminal charges, the court heard.
O’Connor agreed, under cross examination by Cody, that, in his opinion, Looby was not the “mastermind”, but he said the background to the relationship between Looby and the other man remained unclear.
Cody said Looby had become a “pariah” among his local farming community because of the “very serious” animal neglect on his land.
Looby faces up to five years in prison and/or a €250,000 fine.
Cody said Looby was “shameful” and “remorseful” and he had since signed over the running of the farm to other family members, who were in court to support him but were struggling to understand how he had got himself involved.
Judge Fiona O’Sullivan remanded Looby on continuing bail to June 3rd to fix a date for sentence.
