Category Archives: livestock hauliers

abattoirs / animal slaughter, Food Production, livestock hauliers

Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire: Jonathan Botterill

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CONVICTED (2024) | livestock transporter Jonathan Botterill, born c. 1977, of Spellowgate, Driffield YO25 – filmed picking up a pig by her ears and flipping her onto her back.

Cruel lorry driver Jonathan Botterill picked up a terrified pig by her ears and flipped her onto her back

Botterill, an employee of Chris Waite Transport, pleaded guilty to using violence likely to cause unnecessary fear, injury or suffering and for using prohibited handling techniques when unloading pigs.

He was filmed on CCTV lifting a terrified pig by her ears and flipping her onto her back at Cranswick Country Foods in Preston on August 31, 2023.

Cruel lorry driver Jonathan Botterill picked up a terrified pig by her ears and flipped her onto her back

The court heard Animal Health Officers from East Riding of Yorkshire Council began investigating following a referral from a vet who worked for the Food Standards Agency.

Botterill was trained in the correct methods of handling pigs and other livestock and had 20 years of experience. During an interview, he admitted it was not an appropriate handling technique and failed to use his pig board or ask for assistance.

Sentencing | ordered to pay a £670 fine, a £268 victim surcharge, and £884.94 costs.

HullLive

abattoirs / animal slaughter, farms / smallholdings, Food Production, livestock hauliers

Cullyhanna / Keady, County Armagh: Aeneas Carragher and Wayne Smyth

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CONVICTED (2024) | farmer Aeneas Carragher, born c. 1964, of 85 Skerriff Road, Cullyhanna, Newry BT35 0JW, and animal transporter Wayne Smyth, born c. 1988, of Annvale Gardens, Keady, Armagh BT60 2RS – for the callous disregard for the suffering of a dying dairy cow.

Cruel farmer Aeneas Carragher from Cullyhanna, Newry, County Armagh
Cruel farmer Aeneas Carragher

On Monday, March 11, 2024, Aeneas Carragher was convicted of one charge of causing an animal to be transported that was not fit for the journey. Carragher was fined £500 plus £15 offender levy.

Wayne Smyth was convicted of one charge of transporting an animal that was not fit for the journey. Smyth was fined £500 plus £15 offender levy.

The case arose on February 13, 2023, when a DAERA Official Veterinarian (OV), at an abattoir, examined an animal that was presented by Smyth on behalf of Carragher.

The cow was very thin and shivering. A lairage worker attempted to make the cow walk, but the animal immediately fell in the pen.

The OV carried out an ante-mortem examination of the recumbent cow. The animal was emaciated with prominent transverse and dorsal spinal processes, and the OV estimated that the animal had a body condition score of “1” or less.

The animal was humanely destroyed, where she lay, to avoid any further suffering.

The OV’s professional opinion was that this cow was too thin and weak to have been transported and was caused unnecessary suffering by this action.

ArmaghI

Food Production, livestock hauliers

Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire / Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire: Andrew Marwood and Lee Pearcy

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CONVICTED (2023) | Andrew Marwood, born 4 August 1995, of Manor Close, Kirkbymoorside YO62 6EP and Lee Pearcy of The Mile, Pocklington, York YO42 – for sickening violence towards a terrified pig.

Animal abuser Andrew Marwood from Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire
Andrew Marwood kept his job with the unnamed pig production company despite being filmed assaulting a helpless pig

Marwood and Pearcy, employees of an unnamed Holderness pig production company, were fined for animal welfare offences.

Driver Marwood and fieldsman Pearcy pleaded guilty to offences under animal transport legislation for using violence likely to cause unnecessary fear, injury or suffering and for using prohibited handling techniques when loading pigs for transport.

The court heard how animal health officers from East Riding Council undertook an investigation after video footage of pigs being loaded onto a lorry at a farm in Wyton, Holderness, on April 24, 2023, was received from a member of the public.

The video showed Marwood lifting a pig, who was reluctant to load, by the tail and hitting her with a pig board (a board used to guide pigs when moving them). When the pig still refused to load onto the lorry, she was then hit on multiple occasions with a pig board by Pearcy.

The investigation found the pig company had apparently provided extensive training on the correct methods for handling and moving pigs.

Following internal disciplinary hearings, Pearcy was dismissed while Marwood was transferred into a driving role which does not involve handling livestock.

Sentencing | Marwood was fined £480 and £800 costs with a £192 victim surcharge and Pearcy was fined £384 and £800 costs with a £154 victim surcharge.

HullLive
Yorkshire Post

abattoirs / animal slaughter, Food Production, livestock hauliers

Shaftesbury, Dorset: John Pritchard

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CONVICTED (2023) | John Edward Pritchard, born c. 1975, of Enham Green, Shaftesbury – caused unnecessary suffering to a group of young calves on their way to a slaughterhouse.

Livestock haulier Pritchard was in charge of transporting 35 calves on a two-hour journey from a farm in Sherborne, Dorset, to an abattoir in Wiltshire.

However, his double-decked livestock trailer was only designed to carry sheep when both decks were in use, because there was insufficient headroom on the lower deck for calves to stand.

When he arrived, the calves were unloaded by a member of staff who immediately noticed that the animals on the lower deck had injuries to their backs where they had bumped against the roof supports of the upper deck during the journey.

Many of the calves suffered injuries when they stumbled and fell down the trailer ramp which was twice as steep as it should be
Many of the calves suffered injuries when they stumbled and fell down the trailer ramp which was twice as steep as it should be

Some of these injuries were up to 10cm long and an examination of the carcasses after slaughter revealed deep bruising.

The official vet at the slaughterhouse examined the calves and concluded that they had been caused unnecessary suffering.

CCTV footage of the calves being unloaded was shown to the court and this also revealed that the ramp angle for the upper deck was far too steep for calves to safely walk down.

The maximum permitted angle for such a ramp is 20 degrees but Pritchard’s was more than 40 degrees, with the CCTV showing the calves stumbling and falling down the ramp.

The court heard that to transport the calves safely and legally, Pritchard should have only used the lower deck on the trailer with the upper deck folded away.

This would have meant doing two journeys to the slaughterhouse but instead it was deemed he decided to put profit before animal welfare.

The prosecution was brought by Dorset Council following an investigation by its Trading Standards team.

Sentencing | 18-month conditional discharge; prosecution costs of £6,495 plus a £22 court surcharge.

Daily Echo
ITV News