Cow impaled on tractor fork
Ohakune, WE (NZ)

Incident Date: Thursday, Sep 4, 2008

Disposition: Alleged

Abuser names unreleased

Two New Zealand farmers face animal cruelty charges after a live cow was found impaled on the steel fork of a tractor's front-end loader, police said on Friday.

Police sergeant Mike Craig said he stumbled on the incident as he drove along a highway near the central North Island farming town of Ohakune.

"It was actually impaled on one of the forks. I couldn't believe what I saw and did a U-turn and went back" to investigate, he said.

Craig said it appeared the farm manager had been asked to slaughter the cow, which was sick, and had shot it in the side of the head. However, but the shot did not kill the animal and a short time later the farm owner had arrived with the tractor, impaling the cow by stabbing it below its spine.

The farmer then drove about 100 yards (meters) toward the highway with the cow hanging on the fork. It was not immediately clear whether he knew it was still alive, Craig said.

The police sergeant said that after his intervention, the cow was released from the fork "and it walked away into a neighboring paddock in an obviously distressed state." The badly injured animal was eventually killed by the farmer.

The two farmers are to appear in Ohakune District Court next week on animal cruelty charges.

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