A HIGH Court judge yesterday refused to order the Department of Agriculture to return cattle it seized from a firmer who said he brought some animals across the Border for the purposes of testing them.
Mr Justice McCracken said the perception that our cattle were being protected was almost as important as their physical protection. The perception that cattle were being brought into Northern Ireland even for a short time and the perception that they could be subject to infection from BSE and that European regulations were being breached was something he was entitled to take into account.
Mr Edward Allingham, a farmer from Kilcoo, Garrison, Co Fermanagh, said in an affidavit that his family had land on both sides of the Border. His mother owned 65 acres in Kilcoo which he farmed and he owned an ad joining 35 acres in Gortnaderry, Kiltyclogher Co Leitrim, which was separated from the Fermanagh farm by a river which formed part of the Border.
He also owned another seven or eight acres in Kiltyclogher. He rented 109 acres in Ballymore, Co Westmeath, and a further 25 acres in Palmerstown, Co Dublin.
He was conscious of the need to keep the cattle in Fermanagh separate from the herd across the Border in Gortnaderry. His cattle in the Republic were tested annually under the bovine TB and brucellosis schemes and it was his practice to bring the cattle at the Gortnaderry farm to a testing shed on the Fermanagh farm and return them immediately after testing.
These cattle would be on the Fermanagh farm for half an hour and were never allowed to roam freely and there was never any question of their intermingling with the Fermanagh herd. They were only there for testing purposes. On May 2nd, 1996, 29 cattle were tested on the Fermanagh farm, and on May 7th a farther nine at the same location.
On June 7th last, a Department of Agriculture official, Mr Martin O'Sullivan, served notice that under EC regulations he was seizing 11 cattle front the Co Westmeath farm, and also 23 from Gortnaderry on the basis that they had been imported from the UK.
Mr Martin O'Sullivan, superintending veterinary inspector with the Department, said in an affidavit that since March 27th last there had been a complete prohibition on the importation of bovine animals from the UK to protect against BSE.
On May 18th last 23 cattle owned by Mr Allingham were seized when Department officials learned they were being tested and tagged in the North and subsequently exported to the Republic. Following this, Department officials did a check on the farmer's cattle in Westmeath and were satisfied that ear tags on nine animals had been tampered with.
Their was no evidence as to how long the 23 animals from Gortnaderry had been in the North and no evidence as to the true origin of the animals seized in Co Westmeath. He decided that the animals should be slaughtered and signed the required notice on June 7th.
On October 16th, gardai seized 11 cattle on a road in Co Leitrim, nine of which had Northern type ear tags, while a farther two were untagged.
Mr Paul Sreenan SC, for Mr Allingham, said there was no evidence to suggest that the seized cattle had BSE.
