“It was supposed to run around over there with the word on it, yes, when I was pissed off,” he said.
“It was never supposed to end this way. It ended this way and, yeah, it looks f***ing terrible.”
Leanne Rouse, who was caring for the bull with her husband Roger, said she saw Murphy driving along the road with the animal strapped to a pallet on his tractor.
She believed the bull was already dead because its head was hanging down.
The dead animal with an expletive spray-painted on its side. Photo / Leanne Rouse
Leanne Rouse said she approached Murphy after he stopped and started undoing the straps, asking why the animal was dead.
“I said to him, ‘It’s dead’. He goes, ‘No, it’s not.’ I go, ‘It’s dead.’ He goes, ‘No, it’s not.’”
Leanne Rouse claimed Murphy then told her: “It wasn’t dead when I put it on the crate.”
Murphy told the Herald the bull was alive when he left his property and was restrained during the journey.
“When it left here it was restrained and it went over the hill as far away from my animals as I could possibly get it,” he said.
“I went over, released the straps and it was supposed to go in the paddock.”
The cause of the bull’s death is still being established by authorities.
Murphy told the Herald he thought the animal may have died from bloat after it “gorged itself on good pasture on my land”.
A neighbour said MPI had removed the bull’s head for examination.
Murphy said the incident followed long-standing problems with animals entering his land. He said the bull had been among three groups of his cattle during the preceding three days and he and his wife had spent about 13 hours returning it.
“I returned it twice on Sunday and once on Monday, and we’d warned them that they were on the riverbank the week prior.”
The bull when it was returned to the Rouse’s property. Photo / Leanne Rouse
The Rouses disputed Murphy’s account of how frequently their stock had entered his property.
Roger Rouse said animals had crossed to the other side of the river only two or three times. This prompted the Rouses to hire fencing contractors to install a two-wire electric boundary fence that allows flood water to pass through.
The area where the animal crossed was susceptible to flooding, making permanent boundary fences impractical on both properties, he said.
The nearly year-old bull did not belong to them but was being grazed on their property for another farmer. Roger Rouse estimated it weighed about 270kg, while Murphy estimated its weight at between 150kg and 200kg.
Murphy said he was willing to pay for the animal, although he later learnt it did not belong to the Rouses.
“As I said on the night, I was willing to pay for it,” he said. “It wasn’t supposed to die.”
The Rouses disputed that claim, saying he never offered to pay.
The two families have not spoken since the incident.
Police told the Herald an investigation was underway.
“I can confirm police are investigating a matter involving a dispute between neighbours, and a bull being killed, which occurred at a Tapuhi Rd address on September 8,” a spokesperson said.
MPI manager animal welfare and national animal identification and tracing compliance North, Brendon Mikkelsen, said the ministry was also investigating.
“Our role is to identify possible animal welfare breaches under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and to hold those responsible to account.”
Mikkelsen said MPI had visited the property and was working to determine the cause of the animal’s death.
The Herald spoke to a neighbour who was friendly with both families and was present shortly after Murphy arrived at the Rouses’ property on his tractor.
They said it was hard to believe what happened as there hadn’t seemed to be any animosity before the incident.
The neighbour said it was a sad scenario for the small community as Murphy’s wife and the Rouses’ daughter worked together.
“All it needed was one phone call,” said Leanne Rouse. “We would have gone straight over and collected our bull. One phone call, one message – that’s all it needed.”