A farmer was fined £21,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 to the court poor-box or face two six-month prison sentences on illegal animal drugs charges at Thurles District Court yesterday.
Frank Mockler (58), of Grange, Brittas, Thurles, Co Tipperary, who was said to own a 430-acre farm, pleaded guilty to 27 charges out of a total of 91 summonses issued by the Minister for Agriculture.
Mr Brian Flaherty, a senior veterinary inspector with the Department, told how Mockler had made three statements to him admitting he had treated animals with illegal drugs.
Mr Flaherty said the defendant had said he used the drugs because he faced ruin and owed £500,000 to the banks. He then owned 800 cattle in 1996.
Mr Flaherty said Mockler said he had injected 140 or 150 of the cattle he owned, because animals he had purchased the previous winter, in 1995 at £650 each, were worth less the following December, 1996.
He said he had gone to the defendant's house on December 13th after tests on cattle he (Mockler) had presented at the AIBP beef plant in Cahir had been found to have been treated with illegal growth-promoters.
Mr Flaherty said the five-man Department investigation team, accompanied by three gardai, had found large quantities of drugs which could be used in a cocktail to generate growth. They also found a small quantity of clenbuterol, commonly called "angel dust".
Mr Flaherty said that in one of his admissions the defendant said he had only used synovex, which he said was "a naturally-occurring harmless drug".
He told Mr Flaherty the drug was widely used all over the world, and scientists regarded it as not dangerous. He had used it out of desperation.
The defendant said that in desperation he had sought drugs to make the cattle more valuable, and a man had called to the house offering drugs to him.
The man, who Mr Flaherty said had been named by the defendant, had offered to take back any quantities left over after treatment and also told him that the drugs could not be detected. Mockler had paid more than £800 for the drugs.
Mr Flaherty told Judge James O'Connor, presiding at the special sitting of the court, that all the drugs found in the loft of the house and in a bag tied up a tree near the house were banned under Irish and EU law.
Mr David Molony, solicitor for the defendant, said Mockler was trading at a loss of £50,000 each year since the BSE crisis and had lost all his beef premiums, worth £50,000, because of the case.
Total losses since the Department prosecution began amounted to £180,000, and Mockler currently owed the banks £150,000.
He now needed to buy 600 animals to maintain his stock numbers, and this would cost in the region of £500,000.
Mr Flaherty said synovex was used as a growth-promoter in the United States, but the drugs found on the farm were not synovex, but a synthetic substance.
Mr Bill Dowling, a local vet and character witness for the defendant, said he had known Mockler since 1961 as "a straight man" who told the truth. He said Mockler was "a gifted cattleman" and was top-class at his job. He was involved in charity work and sport, especially Durlas Og, a juvenile sports club in Thurles.
"He is not a man who would use `angel dust'. He was not that type, and I would not be here to help if he did," he said.
Mr Dowling said he did not believe the hormones administered by the defendant were doing any harm, and the ban was brought about by consumer pressure.
"It's like eating meat on a Friday. A sin one year and not the next," he said.
He said he did not regard the charges against Mockler as serious, and Mockler had gone through hell since the charges were made, and he had volunteered to be a character witness.
Imposing sentence, Judge O'Connor said he had intended to send the defendant to prison except for the insurmountable burden it would place on the other members of his family.
He said the two eldest boys worked away from home, and the youngest was 15. If there had been anyone at home who could take care of the farm, he would have had no hesitation in sending him to prison.
He fined Mockler £21,000 on the charges of selling and possessing illegally-treated animals and possession and administration of the drugs. He imposed two six-month sentences, suspended on condition that Mockler paid £1,000 on each of the two charges into the court poor-box within two months.
He imposed a further six-month sentence, suspended on condition that he was willing and adjudged suitable to carry out 240 hours' community service. He adjourned this sentence until March 12th for a probation report.