A jury has found a farmer Warren Koberstein guilty of a majority of the animal cruelty charges he was accused of, following a three-week Rotorua District Court trial. Photo / Andrew Warner
Warning: Disturbing content
Warren Koberstein’s sheep were emaciated, in pain and at the point of dying. Some couldn’t stand and had their eyes pecked out by hawks. His cattle were starving.
Many of his animals had to be destroyed to end their suffering.
A jury has found a Mangakino farmer with more than 40 years’ experience guilty of a majority of the animal cruelty charges he was accused of, following a three-week Rotorua District Court trial.
After just over a day of deliberating, on Friday the jury returned 11 guilty verdicts, three not guilty verdicts, and couldn’t decide on one charge.
Among the serious charges was he wilfully ill-treated 33 sheep that had to be destroyed to end their pain and distress. He was also found guilty of charges relating to failing to ensure proper and sufficient food for 834 pregnant sheep, 86 cattle and 32 heifers.
Other charges related to sheep that were found cast with their eyes gone, one that had a deformed neck and wasn’t able to eat properly and another that had an injured foot and was moving around the paddock on its knuckle.
The three charges he was found not guilty of related to three sheep in total, including two charges alleging he wilfully ill-treated a sheep and one charge that he recklessly ill-treated a sheep.
The jury couldn’t decide on one charge that he recklessly ill-treated a cow by failing to ascertain whether a cow that had fallen into a tomo was alive, resulting in the cow suffering unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.
The charges stemmed from a Ministry for Primary Industries notification in July 2019 after an alarm was raised by Koberstein’s vet about the condition of animals on the farm.
Animal welfare inspectors found dead and dying animals. A large portion of stock had a body-weight condition below the ideal rating of 5 – with many found to have ratings of 0 to 2.
The jury was shown videos of injured or deformed sheep and a heifer lying at the bottom of a tomo, unable to move.
It was the Crown’s case Koberstein was worried about his “bottom line” and it saw him have animals that were “malnourished, emaciated and at the point of death” following chronic underfeeding and overstocking farming practices.
Prosecutor Anna McConachy, who was assisted by Kris Bucher, said the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to animals that were starving and dying painfully. McConachy said Koberstein was aware of the issues but did not take reasonable steps to help them.
McConachy produced evidence Koberstein had been warned about his farming practices by the ministry four times since 2000 and was formally put on notice that his animals fell below minimum standards.
The Crown was also able to tell the jury Koberstein had been found guilty of previous offending relating to animal cruelty stemming from 2018 – which formed part of the Crown’s argument that Koberstein knew what was required of him by law.
McConachy pointed out to the jury in her closing address that when Koberstein took the stand in his defence, he disagreed with “almost everything” during evidence, including body scoring results and opinions of vets and farm consultants.
He also claimed one consultant was “an idiot” and refused to hand over a report to the ministry the consultant had written about Koberstein’s farming practices.
McConachy said Koberstein disagreed with his 2018 conviction – unsuccessfully appealing.
It was Koberstein’s defence he was working seven days a week farming through drought conditions in 2019 and he did the best he could.
Koberstein’s lawyer, Fletcher Pilditch, pointed to the difference between having production animals and domesticated pets and described his client as exactly what you’d expect from a farmer of 40-plus years.
Pilditch said in his closing address Koberstein was the type of man who “called a spade a spade” and conceded that during his evidence he would “get off topic” at times.
“At times he could be a bit curmudgeonly … maybe a bit belligerent. He’s everything you’d expect a farmer who has survived 40 years on a farm to be.”
After the jury delivered their verdicts on Friday, Judge Tony Snell allowed Koberstein to leave the courtroom on continued bail.
As Koberstein walked out, he stood before two Ministry of Primary Industries inspectors sitting in the public gallery and stared at them for several seconds before leaving.
Koberstein will be sentenced on May 22.
The verdicts
- Guilty of six charges he wilfully ill-treated animals.
- Guilty of one charge he kept an animal alive suffering unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.
- Guilty of one charge of recklessly ill-treating a sheep.
- Guilty of three charges he failed to comply with obligations under the Animal Welfare Act to ensure the physical, health and behaviour needs of the animals were met in a manner in accordance with both good practice and scientific knowledge.
- Not guilty of two charges alleging he wilfully ill-treated a sheep.
- Not guilty of one charge he recklessly ill-treated a sheep.
- The jury couldn’t decide on one charge that he recklessly ill-treated a cow.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.