Jail for hobby farmers who starved cattle
14 December 1999
Jail for hobby farmers who starved cattle
By FWi staff
TWO telecommunication engineers who dabbled in farming have been jailed for 28 days after they left cattle to starve to death.
Four out of 13 calves kept by Craig Boyd and Richard Lovell from North Evington, Leicestershire, were found dead. An emaciated ewe had to be put down.
The court heard that the men had bought the animals from Melton Mowbray market six months earlier and did not realise what they were taking on.
“There was no deliberate cruelty,” said Emma Pinchbeck, defending.
The two defendants said they had tried to rear the animals in their spare time as a hobby rather than a farming business.
But they admitted five offences of causing unnecessary suffering and four charges of failing to dispose of animal carcasses.