Fivemiletown cattle cull: Alliance MLA questions 'levels of publicity and commentary' over incident
An Alliance MLA has questioned the “levels of publicity and commentary” around the Daera culling of 51 cattle earlier this year, saying it was of such an order that constituents were asking whether it had never happened before.
John Blair made the remarks as Stormont's agriculture committee quizzed the department’s top civil servant and chief veterinary officer in the wake of a report into the June incident.
While initially attracting little attention, the incident near Fivemiletown grew into a political row over the summer – culminating in calls for the farming minister Andrew Muir to quit.
He ordered an external review into the planning and execution of the operation, which reported earlier this week. It found that while lawful and appropriate – but that there had been “insufficient consideration” given to the “visual and emotional upset felt by individuals” who witnessed the operation.
Mr Blair quizzed permanent secretary Katrina Godfrey about previous incidents as she fielded questions on the issue during a committee hearing on Thursday.
“In relation to previous deprivation orders, quite literally, there have been such levels of publicity and commentary around this one that I've had constituents asking me, ‘Has this never happened before?"’
“So, can I ask, in that regard, then, do you have information to hand regarding how often these have happened before, when exactly they happened, where exactly they happened, under whose leadership they happened, and how much committee scrutiny there was on previous occasions when deprivation orders that of any considerable number of animals being destroyed came to light?”, the South Antrim MLA asked.
Minister Muir’s top official said that the department always publishes details of court cases.
“I'm not aware of the committee having asked to take evidence on any of those before. There are court deprivation orders. There are also other times for animal welfare and animal suffering reasons that animals do have to be euthanised, and that does not happen very often. But it does happen from time to time”, Ms Godfrey said.
She cited a case published this week in which a man was convicted of charges relating to the welfare of sheep, after the discovery of animals in a lorry at a border control post in Belfast Port.
“If I go back to February 2024, because obviously we had the period where there was no committee to ask questions, we have had three orders: 61 cattle in January 2025, 17 in June ‘25, 51 obviously in Fivemiletown, 11 sheep, 10 pigs.
“I think if I go back and I haven't gone back into all of the records, I think since 2016, and Michelle [McIlveen] has mentioned some of this already. Yes, certainly about 150 cattle and a number of pigs and other animals as well. But I think each case is different” Ms Godfrey said.
She said these incidents were three on farm destruction, four off farm, and one which was a deprivation order.
Mr Blair suggested the committee ask to see the details of the figures and the timeline.
“Thankfully, these are rare occasions, but given the level of committee interest today, I would expect that we would want to see those and give a fuller picture. Similar to that we get when we request Raise briefings, for example, on patterns across a period of years or across jurisdictions or whatever”, Mr Blair added.