A court in eastern Finnmark County was hearing the case against another farm owner charged with animal neglect and cruelty on Friday. The case comes shortly after a farmer in the southern part of the country was similarly charged, following state authorities’ discovery of 400 dead pigs in his barn that he had neglected to feed or water.
Prosecutors in the Finnmark case said they found 88 scared and undernourished animals that were badly neglected on the farm, many left to wallow in their own excrement. Among the animals that lacked food and clean water were three horses, 10 rabbits, 16 cats and 25 dogs. Fish, birds and small animals were also neglected to the point where authorities from food safety agency Mattilsynet felt compelled to destroy them.
The 50-year-old woman who owns the farm with her daughter, in her 20s, denied the charges against her and claimed she “had a good conscience for everything I’ve done” for the animals.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Tønsberg in southern Norway asked that a 44-year-old man be sentenced to jail for seven months and stripped of the right to own animals for the next 20 years, after authorities found more than 400 dead pigs and had to destroy 60 more on his farm in Stokke, Vestfold County.
The man, who was said to have suffered a period of depression 18 months ago, claimed he was so ashamed that several of his animals died when he’d neglected to give them food and water that he eventually stopped going into his barn. His defense attorney argued that he already had been punished enough, and asked the court to give him a much shorter sentence than what prosecutors sought.
newsinenglish.no staff
