News

Sickening cruelty sparks urgent call for NT stock squad return

Beef Central, 04/09/2019

A SICKENING case of animal cruelty has triggered renewed calls for the restoration of a Police stock squad in the Northern Territory.

A report in the NT News has documented a shocking incident in which a live cow had its leg “hacked off by wannabe amateur butchers” at a cattle yard outside of Darwin.

Click on the image below to view a scanned copy of the NT News article:

Source: NT News

Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association CEO Ashley Manicaros said the report highlight the urgent need for a stock squad in the NT.

“The report in today’s Northern Territory News is sickening and the punishment deserves the full weight of the law,” Mr Manicaros said.

He said NTCA members were losing up to ten animals a week to theft in some locations around the Territory putting the thefts into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“But this goes well beyond stock value and to the core of how NTCA members take their animal welfare extremely seriously. We want to see those who treat animals this way punished and we want to see police acting proactively to stop this type of behaviour – there is no excuse for it.”

“We believe a stock squad working closely with the Department of Primary Industry and resources animal welfare officers and stock inspectors is the best way for this to occur.”

“It has been more than a decade since the stock squad existed in a dedicated form and we have been discussing with the Northern Territory Police Service about re-forming the squad to deal with what has been an increasing area of concern for NTCA members.”

“Former Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw was extremely supportive of the notion and earlier this year he asked his senior commissioned officers to attend NTCA branch meetings to discuss the issue and what had to happen to make it a reality.”

“Since then we have had further discussions looking at reporting practices of members and also the way police respond to the reports. When you start to add up the totals of the animals being lost on a regular basis then the prison terms also start to increase into the years.”

Mr Manicaros said the type of theft occurring varied from region to region.

“In the Top End for example we’ve had reports where cattle have been slaughtered and left for bait for wild pigs – we know organised hunting competitions are strongly opposed to this behaviour – but weekend warrior hunters don’t seem as concerned.”

Source: NTCA

 

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Comments

  1. Kerree gioiello, 27/12/2020

    Why hasn’t anything been done to stop This horrific cruelty to animals. First priority is to stop any form of animal abuse. Animal welfare is number one priority. A must.

  2. Caroline Fischer, 06/09/2019

    Absolutely disgraceful behaviour, the law needs to be 100% jail, and a fine, education on animal welfare and respect for other people’s property, work with animals not against them, Name and shame them publicly every day for life

  3. Jennifer Carucci, 05/09/2019

    Harshed penalties need to be upheld to deter this type of behaviour. Not good enough.

  4. Glenn Nix, 04/09/2019

    Funny how all the virtue signallers are commenting about mulesing & no one is here . If this is the justice system in the NT then we need another intervention . If you did this in the south you might be very old by the time you got released .

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