‘Atrocious’ Roscommon farm conditions described at animal cruelty trial

A west of Ireland farmer facing 40 animal welfare charges told a Department of Agriculture inspector he was trespassing on his land, a court has heard.

Sean Coughlan (47), of Cum, Laherdane, Ballina, Co Mayo, appeared before Judge Kenneth Connolly and a jury at Roscommon Circuit Court on Friday for the third day of his trial in relation to the alleged offences which include failure to dispose of bovine carcasses appropriately and animal cruelty.

Arthur O’Connor, a superintendent veterinary inspector with the department and inspector at the time of the allegations, gave evidence that he and two colleagues called to Coughlan’s farm at Laragan, Elphin, Co Roscommon, on November 23rd, 2022.

O’Connor told the jury that a letter dated November 22nd, 2022, was issued to Coughlan by another veterinary inspector at the department, James Casey, which informed him that his farm would be inspected on November 29th.

O’Connor said that he made the decision to call out to Coughlan’s farm on November 23rd with his colleagues to make sure Coughlan knew they were coming on November 29th.

O’Connor said he knocked at Coughlan’s house but there was no response. He proceeded to walk through sheds to ascertain whether there would be sufficient handling equipment for the November 29th inspection.

O’Connor said that in a pen of a slatted shed, there were some calves along with two dead calves of which he took photographs and that he then rang a mobile phone number that he believed belonged to Coughlan.

O’Connor said he disclosed who he was to the person who answered and who identified themselves as Coughlan, that he had found two dead calves and asked this person “what was the story, when had they died?” and that his herd would be inspected on November 29th.

O’Connor said that this person said he was trespassing and instructed him to leave.

O’Connor said that in the parlour, the trench between two rows of cows being milked was flooded to “several inches” with dirty water contaminated with faecal material.

He said that the cows were being milked in “severely unhygienic and inappropriate” conditions.

He told Seán O’Quigley, barrister for the DPP, that the hygienic conditions in the parlour were “atrocious”.

“The clusters are absolutely caked in dried faecal contamination,” O’Connor said, which indicated that they had not been cleaned “in a very long time”, he added.

O’Connor said that he had worked for 24 years as a veterinary practitioner, before beginning employment with the department in 2016.

“These are the filthiest clusters I’ve seen in my life, I’ve seen hundreds of dairy farms,” he told the court.

The jury were also shown a photograph of decomposing bovine flesh and the jawbone and teeth of what O’Connor said was a four to six-month-old calf, which was lying in “a dung heap or a disused silage heap”.

They also saw a photograph of a cow, which O’Connor described as “emaciated” lying down in a shed with a spinal protrusion “like a sail” on its back.

Coughlan has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and Coughlan Farming Ltd, of which he is a director. The trial resumes on Tuesday.