A HERD of cattle owned by a Co Cork farmer was slaughtered last Sunday. The man had been granted an extension until noon on Saturday of a High Court order to prevent the slaughter of his herd, in which a BSE infected animal had been found.
The farmer, Mr James Sutton, Kilgarriffe House, Clonakilty, had rejected allegations that he had imported a BSE infected cow to claim compensation from the Department of Agriculture.
The Department confirmed yesterday that the slaughter of all the animals on the farm had taken place under Department supervision on Sunday.
"We can confirm that no compensation has been paid out to the herd owner," said a Department spokesman.
Mr Sutton had said in an affidavit to the High Court that since October 25th last, when the animal was diagnosed as having BSE, his property had been searched by Department officials and gardai.
He said it had been indicated to him by Department officials that they had a suspicion about the origins of the cow, and the implication was that the animal which had been put down was not the correct animal to be identified by an ear identity tag and that he, Mr Sutton, had switched the tag.
He said in the affidavit that a further implication was that he had imported an animal which he knew was suffering from BSE to claim compensation.
"I say these allegations are false and that the animal's ear tag was in no way interfered with," said Mr Sutton.