10 pregnant cows shot
Manning, NSW (AU)Incident Date: Wednesday, Sep 20, 2006
Disposition: Open
Case Images: 1 files available
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
Ten dairy cows due to calve this week have been shot and killed in a senseless act of animal cruelty/ vandalism on a lower Manning property.
It is believed the perpetrators with a high powered weapon may have been in a boat on Dicksons Creek (near Ghinni Ghinni Creek), or maybe on an adjoining property on the far bank.
The cattle deaths have rocked the owners, the Cunninghams, who are struggling as one of the Manning's surviving dairy families following deregulation of their industry several years ago.
The three to six year-old Friesian cows were all due to drop their second to fourth calves this week - the Cunninghams estimating their loss at around $1000 a head.
"It was a gutless act... heart wrenching," Craig Cunningham said this week.
Craig, his wife Sue, Craig's father and one of the couple's daughters had the gruesome task of retrieving five bodies from Dicksons Creek, where they were found floating, and five more from the creekbank.
Using first their small boat, and then a tractor, they had to haul the bloated and decomposing bodies onto level ground and then bury them in a mass grave.
Police are now investigating the case and have appealed for anyone who may have seen or heard anything unusual in the Blacks Lane/Dicksons Creek area of Ghinni Ghinni or Moto early last week to come forward.
"Any bit of information, no matter how small, might help the police in their investigation," Craig Cunningham said.
To survive, the Cunninghams rear their dairy herd on four properties they own in close proximity.
The Blacks Lane property where the shootings occurred is used for dry cows, just prior to them calving and re-joining the milking herd.
The family is unclear exactly when the shootings occurred, first becoming aware when a city council ranger rang to inform them some of their cattle were floating in Dicksons Creek on Sept 20.
The sight that greeted them was appalling, Craig and Sue said.
"Five of our cows were floating in the creek, another five were dead on the banks of the creek. To have been shot there, it would have had to be either by an idiot in a boat, or from someone spotlighting on the other bank."
The area is sparsely populated, the Cunninghams unable by city planning laws to erect a caretaker's house on their Blacks Lane property.
The family spent all day Thursday retrieving the rotting bodies and burying them.
"It was a bloody terrible job," Craig said.
All told, the Cunninghams have 220 head of Friesians on their four properties. They went into the industry eight years ago, just before dairy deregulation.
The only way they can survive in the industry is for Craig and Sue to work the four properties themselves, with two of their teenage daughters helping with the afternoon milking of around 150 cows, after school.
The entire family is devastated by their loss.
"As if deregulation hasn't been a bad enough blow and knocked so many out, now we have to contend with this sort of behaviour. How many blows can you suffer?
"We'll just have to bite the bullet and buy more cows, to keep up the production we need to stay alive," Craig said.
He described the shooting as a 'gutless act'.
"If anyone thought they had a problem with us, why didn't they just come and have a talk with us. This sort of action just doesn't make sense. It's wanton waste."
Anyone with any information which may help the police investigation is asked to ring Taree Police Station on 6552 0399. If you have information on this case, please contact:
Taree Police
6552 0399
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