A FARMER who allowed an animal carcass to remain on his land for almost a month has been given a three-month suspended sentence.
Seán Glynn (58), Tubber, Clare, had three previous convictions for the same offence. He pleaded guilty at Mullingar District Court to failing to remove the fallen heifer, which was found by a garda investigating wandering animals.
Garda Eileen Murphy found what she described as “a decomposing heifer” when she visited the land in early February 2008 after some of Glynn’s 80 cattle were found wandering on a dangerous road at Irishtown, Mullingar. She and a Department of Agriculture vet found the animal on the rented land on February 12th. At that time Glynn was aware the animal had been there for 10 to 15 days, but said he had been unable to remove it because bad weather had made it impossible to cross the land.
Despite a number of undertakings that he would remove the carcass, he failed to do so. The animal was eventually disposed of by the vet on February 29th.
Judge Elizabeth McGrath suspended the sentence for six months, warning Glynn, who farms 300 acres, that if he committed any animal welfare offence within that time she would jail him.
She said that fines imposed for offences prosecuted at Ennis and Rathkeale in 2007 “hadn’t brought home to him the importance of the welfare of animals”.
