A group of 15 to 20 pigs, abandoned and left to starve on farmland in Estate Dorothea, were rescued by Department of Agriculture staff in early July.
According to Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen, department staff had received information that the government-owned land, leased by a farmer through the Agriculture department, had been sublet to another individual. As this is against the rules and regulations of agriculture’s land leases, an eviction notice for the farmer was posted on the property.
When Agriculture Department staff went to the property to check on compliance with the notice to vacate, they discovered the pigs had been left unattended, without food or water.
Petersen said that Agriculture staff, with the help of the Department of Public Works, cleaned up the area and fed and watered the pigs backed to health.
He said Environmental Health Enforcement officers and the Waste Management Authority, at Agriculture’s request, came out to the property to meet with the parties responsible for the pigs. The farmer received a citation and will be barred from renting Agriculture land in the future.
Petersen stated that his department strives “to be diligent about the proper use of the farm land we lease out, to put responsible farmers on the site in the first place, and that a business and scientific approach to farming is used.”
In an unrelated story, an unusually high number of pigs belonging to another farmer in Dorothea have died. Petersen, his department, and farmer Gary Pemberton are working closely together to determine the cause of the pigs’ deaths and prevent any further losses.