A PGG Wrightson livestock manager and auctioneer has been fined $11,000 and ordered to pay $9000 in vet and investigations costs for leaving more than 1400 sheep to starve. Stock agent Neville William Clark, 46, pleaded guilty on Monday to leaving 250 sheep, 1100 lambs and 120 in-lamb ewes on a 412ha forest block just south of Gisborne reports Stuff.

Those not already dead were worm- ridden, weak and emaciated. Dozens of the animals were euthanased. Judge Adeane said Clark was a first-time offender, and there was no suggestion he was “willfully cruel for the sake of cruelty. Rather he has fallen short of good [farming] standards”. An Agriculture and Forestry Ministry statement of facts presented to Gisborne District Court this week said the land could not possibly have provided enough feed for the animals.

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