Trading Standards welcome sentencing of farmer over cattle ID failures
Aberdeenshire Council Trading Standards have welcomed a sentence imposed on a farmer who failed to maintain proper identification of cattle and record keeping.
Following a lengthy multi-agency investigation, James Sephton was fined £2,000 when he appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court last week on behalf of the partnership ‘James Sephton and Sons’, registered at Herd Crescent, Johnshaven.
He had entered a guilty plea to six charges under the Cattle Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2007, having shown a blatant disregard for the requirements governing proper identification and record keeping relating to cattle which he kept on several rented holdings throughout Aberdeenshire and Angus.
During the investigation, officers found cattle with no official identification ear tags when they were clearly outwith the age range for doing so.
Cattle births had not been timeously registered with the authorities due to incomplete breeding and mortality records being kept and duplication in the application of official identification ear tags.
Two mature cows were found bearing the same ID ear tag number after replacement tags had been ordered. Three charges of applying an identity ear tag to a bovine, which had already been used for another bovine previously slaughtered for meat, were also admitted.
Proper compliance with the Cattle Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2007 is essential to protect the integrity and traceability of meat intended for human consumption and to protect against the incursion of Notifiable Animal Diseases such as BSE and Foot and Mouth.
A Trading Standards spokesperson said: “Animal health and welfare officers work hard to ensure the regulations are adhered to – on farms, at markets and at time of slaughter – through a variety of interventions and assistance, with only the most serious breaches being reported to the Procurator Fiscal. We would like to thank colleagues from Angus Council, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate for their assistance throughout this long and complex investigation.”