Sir, – When a cow dies on a farm, instead of reporting the death to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, some farmers order replacement tags for the dead animal and dispose of the carcass illegally. The bodies of earless cows were found on a Clare beach in April of last year.
The farmer now possesses an identity, for which he has no animal. The opposite happens, when bovines are rustled. The thief now possesses animals, whose identities and identity tags he cannot use. The former is in the market for a stolen animal, the later for a new identity and new identity tags.
I’m sure that some, but not all, stolen animals end up in illegal abattoirs but others stay alive with altered identities.
Such illicit behaviour undermines the concept of farm-to- fork traceability and, therefore, undermines the whole beef industry.
Every effort must be made by all stakeholders to combat this treacherous behaviour.
– Yours, etc,
F MURPHY,
Freshford,
Kilkenny.