A County Kerry farmer breached European Community and animal health and welfare regulations “to a scale never seen” in the county before, a court has heard.
John C. Casey, otherwise known as Christy Casey, of Crosstown, Killarney appeared before the district court on 14 sample charges.
These included tag registration offences, failing to produce animal records and failing to make herd registers and animals available for inspection within the State on dates between November 2013 and October 2014.
Fifty-seven-year-old suckler farmer John Casey appeared on 14 sample charges out of 50 summonses for offences under European Community bovine regulations and the Animal Health and Welfare Act.
Veterinary inspector, Louis Reardon said there were regular breaches of the regulations but never to the scale of Mr Casey.
The offences included failure to register calf births, taking possession of animals without passports, failing to make the herd register available for inspection and failing to produce animals for inspection.
Killarney District Court heard he had also failed to comply with a request to give information on the location of animals and that over 60 cattle were still unaccounted for.
Mr Reardon said the Department of Agriculture was looking for a contribution of €5,000 towards costs, which he said were probably in the order of €15,000.
Solicitor Pádraig O’Connell said Mr Casey had some misconceived idea that the Department was not accommodating him. He said he apologised unreservedly for what he had done and failed to do by way of unengagement.
He indicated there would be a guilty plea.
Judge James O’Connor warned that a small shot of prison might jog Mr Casey’s memory.
He said if every farmer carried on like that the country would be upside in relation to the control of stock.
