A FARMER has been banned from keeping livestock for five years and fined £2,100 after inspectors and vets found dead and dying cattle and sheep when they visited his farm.

Live animals were found shoulder deep in slurry and a pile of cow's skulls and bones were found under a plastic sheet in one building. Despite vets' warnings, Graham Gott, who had been running the farm for 10 years without ever arranging for a vet to visit, did nothing to remedy the situation, which went on for over five months, Blackburn magistrates heard. Gott, 49, of Harrop Lodge Farm, Slaidburn, pleaded guilty to two offences of permitting unnecessary suffering, omitting to act thereby resulting in unnecessary suffering, five offences under the Animal Health Act of failing to remove carcasses as soon as possible, three offences of contravening cattle identification regulations and one offence of obstructing a local authority inspector or constable.

He was ordered to pay a further £767 in costs.

Nicholas McNamara, prosecuting on behalf of Lancashire County Council Trading Standards Department, said that when inspectors visited the farm on October 29 last year, they found four cattle carcasses and Gott was advised that many of his other animals needed special care. A brown calf was specifically pointed out.

The inspectors returned the following day to carry out a more detailed inspection and found the carcasses of eight cattle. The bones of a cow were found under a trailer and carcasses of a cow and a calf were found on another trailer. An inspection on November 6 revealed another four carcasses and one of them was the brown calf which Gott had been told needed specialist care. A post mortem examination of the calf revealed sever debilitation due to lung worm, secondary pneumonia and severe liver fluke.

"It was apparent that many of the animals had died where they had laid and had been subjected to pain and suffering," said Mr McNamara.

Duncan Nightingale, defending, said Gott had run the 122-acre farm since his father, Jack Gott, retired 10 years ago. Gott had taken a job with Tarmac in 1990, but the hours he worked allowed him to continue to look after the farm. In October, 1998, he was diagnosed as having a hernia and was unable to work. Mr Nightingale said the farm now had two cows and 40 sheep and was running smoothly. Gott still cares for his father, who has a heart complaint, and his partially-sighted mother, who live at the farm.

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