Livestock owner sentenced over dead cows

A Staffordshire livestock owner has been given a suspended prison sentence and banned from keeping animals for 10 years after multiple cattle were found, a council said, in "extremely poor condition", with some dead or emaciated.

Staffordshire County Council, which brought the case, said 30-year-old Jennifer Bennett appeared before Newcastle Magistrates Court on Thursday over "serious and prolonged animal welfare failings" involving a herd of almost 100 cattle at a farm in Uttoxeter.

The authority said Bennett was given a 14-week suspended jail sentence and ordered to complete 12 months of community service.

She was also ordered to pay £1,000 in costs, and a £154 victim surcharge.

The prosecution came after an unannounced inspection at the farm on Hodge Lane in March last year by the council's trading standards animal health team.

The authority said officers found numerous dead animals, with others emaciated and unable to stand.

It added that cattle were also found without adequate access to food or water, and calves were housed in dirty conditions.

Almost 100 of the animals were removed from the farm to prevent further suffering, the council said, with many receiving vet treatment.

Some were in such poor health they had to be put down, the authority added.

Staffordshire County Council said Bennett's father Alan Bennett, who had day-to-day responsibility for the care of the cattle, was due to be sentenced at Stafford Crown Court at a later date.

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