A Tipperary mart owner says last night’s RTE Investigates programme was ‘shockingly hard to watch.’
Alison De Vere Hunt of Cashel Mart says the piece entitled ‘Milking It Dairy’s Dirty Secret’ has cast a shadow on the entire industry.
However, she says that there are more good farmers out there than bad and that those behaving like this should be held to account by the Department.
She told Tipp Today that this is not commonplace and there has only been one occasion where she has had to pull someone up on their treatment of an animal
“You know I just had one guy a number of years ago collecting animals and you know kicked on or two of them and I actually didn’t say anything on the spot but I rang his boss the next day and I said don’t allow him ever come near this place again, I was shocked to be honest when I saw it I wasn’t even capable of saying anything. I said look he shouldn’t be around livestock it was absolutely shocking. There are always going to be people that are going to push it to the limit, it is shining a bad light on the entirety of the industry.”
She went on to say that farmer mistreating young dairy calves should be held to account.
Alison thinks that since the abolition of the quota the growth of herd numbers has strained capacity which is an issue in itself and must also be addressed :
“The Department are always coming into Marts so I cant understand why, we all saw it last night, those people should be held to account. They are coming into every mart in Ireland I think it needs to start from the ground up I think we need to do something in relation to the welfare of the calves the number being born because they are seen as a by-product. I think that this is a major issue, look to be honest I think this is going to affect the whole industry.”
