CONVICTED (2024) | farmer Maurice Rainey, born 1962, of Church Road, Rosebank, Randalstown BT41 3JW – left his herd of cattle to starve and dehydrate with many of the deceased animals left where they had died.
Rainey was given a custodial “deterrent” sentence after the court heard that this was the second time in six years animals in his care had to be euthanised due to his neglect.
An investigation was launched on 6 March 2023 after after DAERA veterinary services received a complaint about two rotting carcasses on land they knew belonged to Rainey.
Vets attended the scene and found numerous carcasses in varying states of decomposition as well as dehydrated and severely emaciated cattle with no access to feed, water or clean bedding.
Some cows had access to hazardous material while others were housed in an area where sharp protruding edges with the potential to cause injury were present.
At least one cow had an oozing leg injury and was clearly in pain. Sadly this cow had to be humanely euthanised along with others who had been starved to emaciation.
Vets also found that cows had been left to rot where they had died.
Describing photographs of Rainey’s farm, the starved animals and rotting carcasses as “frankly distressing to look at,” Antrim Crown Court Judge Fiona Bagnall told Rainey he had clearly “put his own needs above those of his animals.”, who had been left to suffer for a protracted period.
“He is a farmer whose job it was to look after his stock properly,” said Judge Bagnall.
She added that from the facts of the case and the shocking images she had to see, Rainey “could not have been blind to the offences as the animals suffered a slow and painful demise and this would have been obvious to him every day”.
Rainey pleaded guilty to a total of seven offences including six of causing unnecessary suffering to cows and one of failing to hold animal carcasses, all committed between 7 and 13 March 2023. Wife Hazel Rainey was also charged but it appears the case against her did not proceed.
Rainey’s lawyer told the court his client’s mental health had been deteriorating over the years and due to that and a physical injury, “he couldn’t cope” with the the requirements of farming.
The court heard how a failed TB test meant that Rainey was not able to sell any of his herd, a problem which was exacerbated by him buying a quantity of bad quality silage and by a number of cows being killed by slurry fumes which were pumped into a cattle shed.
Judge Bagnall said she accepted there was mitigation to be found in the medical evidence.
While acknowledging character references describing Rainey as a “kind and caring” father and grandfather, she said this “does not excuse the suffering these poor animals in his care endured”. She added that Rainey had been convicted of a similar offence in 2018.
“If the call had been made to the authorities I dread to think how much longer this state of affairs would have went on for,” pondered Judge Bagnall as she jailed Rainey.
Sentencing | 20-month prison sentence with half to be served in custody and half on license. Disqualified from keeping, owning, participating in keeping animals, being party to an arrangement under which animals are kept, from transporting and arranging transport of all animals for ten years (expires September 2034)