News
31st March 09
3/31/2009
The Ulster Unionist Party’s Agriculture and Rural Development spokesperson, Tom Elliott, has welcomed assurances from Minister Gildernew that positive progress is being made at Little Acre Open Farm in Loughbrickland.
Elliott welcomes progress at Little Acre Open Farm
The Ulster Unionist Party’s Agriculture and Rural Development spokesperson, Tom Elliott, has welcomed assurances from Minister Gildernew that positive progress is being made at Little Acre Open Farm in Loughbrickland. Mr Elliott was a strong critic of the Minister and her Department after it emerged that Department officials had visited the premises nine times in the two years prior to the discovery of abuse of animals.
In a statement, the Fermanagh and South Tyrone representative said: “During question time in the Assembly I took the opportunity to ask Minister Gildernew for an update about the Little Acre Open farm. I was pleased to hear her confirm that positive steps have been taken to address what appeared to be animal abuse which took place at the farm. This includes the imposition of regulation 11 of the Welfare of Farmed Animals Regulations 2000, which permits DARD officials to serve an improvement notice to a keeper setting out what steps are necessary to improve the welfare of their animals. There are also ongoing regular fortnightly visits by Veterinary Service professionals to the premises. I believe that the herd keeper has complied fully with these visits and regulation 11 and that is certainly very welcome news.”
In her response to Mr Elliott, Minister Gildernew also made it known that she was considering a review of procedures which would take into account the events that took place at the open farm.
In welcoming this news, Mr Elliott said “I believe it would be the right thing for the Minister to undertake a review of procedures and I am glad that she is thinking about doing so. While the situation at Little Acre has improved dramatically from when this matter first came to light, we should not forget that in the two years prior to the discovery of the abuse DARD officials had visited the farm on no fewer than nine occasions. Undoubtedly, many people within the agricultural community and indeed wider Northern Ireland society will agree with my view that this statistic alone means that this matter and the procedures followed by officials require further investigation.”
Ends
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