An elderly Galway woman was jailed for cruelty to animals after Athenry District Court heard that more than 30 of her cattle had died from malnutrition since December. Mary Giles, Kiltrogue, Claregalway, was also banned from keeping livestock for five years.
A garda told the court that he inspected Giles's lands on Monday and found only 22 cattle still alive out of 56 counted by a Department of Agriculture official who visited her 28-acre farm on December 1st. The inspector had found 16 dead animals.
Judge Al O'Dea imposed the maximum sentence of three months after he was told that Giles had been convicted at Athenry in March 1993 for cruelty to 52 cattle. At Gort District Court that year she was banned from keeping livestock for three years, and Galway Circuit Court rejected her appeal against that decision in 1995 and confirmed the order. The defendant had never complied with the order and continued to keep cattle.
The court was told there had been problems with cruelty to animals on Giles's farm for many years, and in the opinion of one vet she was not a fit person to keep livestock.
Mr Ben Kelly, an agricultural officer at the district veterinary office in Galway, said he called to the farm on November 30th to carry out a test for TB and brucellosis. He found 16 dead animals and 56 live cattle, many in very poor condition, with only a small amount of poor-quality hay to feed them.
He contacted Garda Pat Heneghan at Loughgeorge Garda station, and they returned to the farm in December and found the 16 dead animals had not been taken away or buried. In his opinion the problem was caused by overstocking and a lack of fodder.
The court heard that Giles objected to Garda Heneghan's presence on her land. She suggested there was a conspiracy against her, and her cattle could have been poisoned.
A Department of Agriculture veterinary surgeon, Mr Peter McAleer, said he inspected the farm on December 3rd and found 56 animals in very poor condition. He returned on December 16th to carry out a TB test and found only 47 still alive.
Three days later, when he returned to conclude the test, three more animals had died.
Mr McAleer said he felt the defendant was trying to do what she thought was best, but she was not a fit person to be in charge of cattle, and down through the years there had been similar problems with her livestock.
"She even feeds bales of hay to the cattle in summer," he said. Cattle in her care had died in 1988, 1993 and 1995. She kept cattle but had little interest in selling them.
After being cautioned by Judge O'Dea about the seriousness of the charges against her and given an opportunity to consult a solicitor, Giles opted to defend herself.
She strenuously denied the charges of neglect and cruelty, saying she provided 210 bales of hay for her cattle every week. She suggested that the cattle had died from contaminated hay as they "seemed to go into a stupor, get dizzy and die" after they ate it. She said the bales were "lethal" and she and her helper, Mr Stephen Kelly, had been made sick when they came into contact with them.
She said she had been dealing with hay for 29 years, and there was definitely "intervention" in this case. Acknowledging that over 30 of her cattle had died this winter, she denied they had died from hunger. She said she kept cattle to make a profit, not to be cruel to them.