Farmer pleads guilty to causing animal suffering

A dead cow was found submerged in mud on a farm that had "the worst standards ever seen", according to council officers.

At Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court on Thursday, farmer Malcom Mosley, who owns and lives at the site, pleaded guilty to nine charges relating to causing unnecessary suffering of an animal and failing to ensure animal welfare.

Prosecuting on behalf of Bradford Council, Imran Hussain told the court Mosley, 61, had been farming for more than 20 years.

He said: "Standards were the worst ever seen by our enforcement officer. Actions were only taken when an improvement notice was served and there was the discussion of any enforcement action."

"Even then the improvements only brought the farm to a temporary, basic standard," he added.

During repeated visits to Primrose Farm in Riddlesden by animal welfare officers, a cow was found stuck in frozen mud, bulls was kept in the same barn as female cows, and one cow was found with an injured rump from repeated attempts at mating by a bull.

One council officer said cows were so emaciated that their spine and hips were showing, one had an ingrowing horn and others were kept in accommodation with barely any natural light.

Mr Mosely had previously been a dairy farmer, but due to concerns over hygiene standards at the farm had switched to beef farming.

Bradford Council's environmental health department carried out an inspection of the farm on Ilkley Road due to "numerous complaints about animal health" at the site.

The charges put to Mosley referred to issues discovered during several visits to the farm between September 2022 and March 2023.

Officers found no bedding in a barn where cows were kept, bovines were left tethered, and water troughs in cowsheds were left empty with no hay for cows to feed on.

They also found dangerous broken equipment in spaces cattle were kept, and floors of barns were covered in faeces.

Despite being told to improve conditions, officers were "dismayed" to see little improvement on follow-up visits.

Mr Hussain said: "One officer said they had never seen animals so thin.

"On one visit cattle were found to have no way to lie down without them laying on their own wet excrement."

Mosley was represented by Mr Birkenshaw from the Farming Community Network.

He said: "The network assists farmers who have lost their way. In this case it has clearly got away from Mr Mosley."

Referring to the claims some cows had been shot due to their condition, Mr Birkenshaw said: "My client wasn't going around shooting animals himself. He got a slaughterman to attend."

The court was told there had been 33 cows on site, but as they had not had TB tests they couldn't be moved on or sold and so "the stock was euthanised in a single day".

Mr Birkenshaw said Mosley would not be resisting the prosecution's call for a banning order.

The court asked the probation service to do a report on Mosley before he is sentenced on April 23, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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