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Incompetence on dairy farm results in hundreds of dead cows in Beatrice
ZNSPCA
October 9, 2003

Meryl Harrison, Chief Inspector for ZNSPCA, asked me to publicise the horrors that are still happening.

"We were called to a dairy farm in Beatrice last week and found over 200 corpses, from tiny calves to adults, and starving dairy cows with eyes sunk in their heads from dehydration everywhere. This was a successful dairy farm and was purchased sometime in 2000 by a businessman who was arrested for fraud by the First National Bank. However he was let out on bail so this is not the result of his being in prison. The records show that 359 cows have died and this started shortly after he took over the farm. The workers pointed out that the cows were fine until the stock feed ran out and the owner then ignored requests for food. (Dairy cows need supplementary feeding all the time) The staff have not been paid for 3 months. We have destroyed 5 in the last 2 days and 5 more down since Friday.

We appealed to a neighbour for food and he took over hay to tide them over the weekend. We are appealing to the Curator of the First National Bank to release some funds to enable us to purchase food, but this is obviously just a stopgap arrangement. At the moment the cows cannot be moved because of their proximity to a Foot and Mouth area.

Whilst on the farm today, we were told about another neighbouring farm where cows were also dying. We went there this afternoon and found the report true. The cows have had no supplementary feed for some weeks and are still being milked. The owner has been told but has done nothing. He apparently lives in Gweru and appears to have another farm there. The children have been collecting acacia pods for them. The pigs had no food for a week and we let them out to forage for themselves. Hygiene in the dairy was non-existent. There were empty containers of Stericlean, but although the owner had been told that they had run out he had not purchased any more. Nothing was being sterilized nor the udders cleaned and the milk was being sent to a cheese-making factory. We offered water to one cow and she drank 3 very big (laundry type) buckets straight off. The water pump was broken but we managed to mend it, however when they started pumping we found there was a crack in the trough and the water all leaked out. The cows were frantically trying to drink from the puddles.

It is heartbreaking to see these cows just lying there waiting to die.

We will be prosecuting in both cases. The farms were purchased in about 2000.

This is a nightmare - bleached bones, decomposing cows, hides everywhere."

Pippa van Renen

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