{"id":575938,"date":"2026-08-21T14:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/575938\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T14:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:18:11","slug":"second-animal-found-butchered-in-northland-after-prize-breeding-bull-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/575938\/","title":{"rendered":"Second animal found butchered in Northland after prize breeding bull killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe meat where it\u2019d been cut was still fresh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it could be related to Ngataki; that if the perpetrators hadn\u2019t been successful there, they\u2019d gone and found another one.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ngataki farmers Bryce and Irma Gibbons discovered their valuable Charolais breeding bull had been killed<\/a> and carved up in its paddock overnight on August 11.<\/p>\n

Their animal, worth about $10,000, had its throat slit and sported deep cut marks from the base of its head along its back and shoulders.<\/p>\n

The family believed whoever killed their 900kg bull had intended to butcher it for meat but underestimated the size of the task.<\/p>\n

The incident was reported to Northland<\/a> police.<\/p>\n

Far North area response manager Senior Sergeant Richard Garton said no positive lines of inquiry had been identified and the file had been closed.<\/p>\n

Bryce said he lost two cattle beasts the same way about 10 years ago \u2013 \u201cthey left only the head and guts and feet\u201d \u2013 and knows friends who have also had cattle killed for meat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that is very hard to guard against.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you had cameras out there … you can have photos of the guys, but if they\u2019re not 100% identifiable, there\u2019s nothing you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

An FMG spokesperson said stock theft or rustling was estimated to cost rural communities \u201chundreds of millions of dollars a year\u201d in lost income.<\/p>\n

Many instances of stock theft go unreported, the insurance company spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

FMG suggests farmers lock stockyard gates and loading ramps where possible, and regularly check paddocks where herds are grazing.<\/p>\n

Boundary gates should be padlocked and fitted with long-pin hinges so they can\u2019t be easily removed, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Associate Minister of Agriculture (Animal Welfare) and lifelong dairy farmer Andrew Hoggard said the recent Ngataki farm killing \u201cshows why rural crime needs a dedicated response\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever did this was brazen enough to enter a farm with a firearm and start cutting up a 900kg bull in its paddock.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederated Farmers\u2019 latest rural crime survey found 67% of farmers had experienced crime, up from 41% in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many rural criminals assume the nearest police car is miles away and nobody is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northland police asked the public to report any suspicious behaviour by phoning 105 or anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.<\/p>\n

Residents can also confidentially call MPI on 0800 693 721 if they hear about unregulated killing and sale of meat in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe meat where it\u2019d been cut was still fresh. \u201cI thought it could be related to Ngataki; that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,3648,1558,18532,22947,283624,1859,1874,78,3375,111,43,139,529,1067,69,73559,10512,116033,8466,10117],"class_list":["post-575938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-animal","tag-been","tag-breeding","tag-bull","tag-butchered","tag-carved","tag-found","tag-in","tag-killed","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-paddock","tag-prize","tag-prized","tag-second","tag-shot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}