A country council in Western Australia’s South West is contemplating footing the bill for a livestock impound facility after the costly and long-winded removal of 60 roving dairy cattle.
The Shire of Capel had to take matters into its own hands after the herd was found roaming and feeding on a rural property in Gelorup last year.
While the owner of the animals was tracked down, council documents show they refused multiple requests to round up and secure the cattle.
The shire’s report said the owner made several excuses for not retrieving the animals, including a movement ban ordered by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD).
The department went on to remove the ban but the owner remained uncooperative.
Shire chief executive Gordon MacMile said it had been a particularly difficult process.
“We can’t just seize someone’s cattle; there’s a formal process we had to follow,” he said.
“So dealing with the livestock owner was frustrating, I guess.”
‘Varying degrees of emaciation’
At the same time the dispute was going on, concerns were being raised about the deteriorating condition of the cattle.
Several of the animals were sighted in “varying degrees of emaciation”, the council’s report stated.
Property and fencing inspections found limited water sources on the land where the cattle were trespassing.
Mr MacMile said two of the 60 animals died while the issue was being resolved.
“Unfortunately there were two animals that weren’t well enough to be transported,” he said.
“But that occurred before they were transported.”
Recovering the cattle from where they were trespassing also proved to be a difficult process.
“It just so happened that it was a heavily vegetated area, so they would just disappear off into tree areas,” Mr MacMile said.
“So that’s not a quick process. We had to determine with a vet to figure out whether they were well enough to be transported.”
The cattle were then sold in a private sale, with money going directly to the shire.
Budget blowout
The investigation and management of the trespassing cattle was a first of its kind for the shire, costing it around $19,000.
After the sale, the shire was more than $13,000 out of pocket.
The costs associated with the agistment, feed, transportation, and sale of the cattle were an “unbudgeted expenditure”, Mr MacMile said.
“I mean, we obviously have a budget and we try to use it responsibly, but this was not something we had budgeted for.”
Lessons learned
Mr MacMile said the shire was looking into the potential opening of an emergency livestock holding yard.
“We are looking to establish an ongoing arrangement where we do have somewhere to take livestock. In this situation it was cattle, but it might be sheep or horses in the future.
“We are looking at establishing an ongoing plan that, if we have to agist animals because of the circumstance or because of an emergency event, we’ve got somewhere we can do that.”
What the holding yard would look like was still unknown.
“It could be land that the shire owns or it may be an arrangement with a group of local farmers,” Mr MacMile said.
“It’s something we would be looking at putting in place over the next six months.”
