{"id":725253,"date":"2026-08-03T01:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/725253\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T01:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:24:16","slug":"fivemiletown-external-review-into-shooting-of-more-than-50-cattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/725253\/","title":{"rendered":"Fivemiletown: External review into shooting of more than 50 cattle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An external review has been ordered into an incident which saw 51 cattle being shot dead in a field, with some of it visible to the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The cull took place in land near Fivemiletown in County Tyrone last month and it was carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs&#8217; (Daera) Humane Slaughter Team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) and political representatives said they had concerns about the public way it was carried out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir said he fully appreciated concerns expressed and added that a review must be taken forward by someone outside his department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Warning: This article contains images of dead animals that some may find distressing <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Daera previously said it was carrying out a court order following a previous animal welfare conviction of the cattle owner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A spokesperson said the court directed that the defendant be deprived of the ownership of all farmed animals and ordered their destruction. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But fresh questions were raised over how the cattle cull operation was carried out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At a recent Mid Ulster Council meeting, reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), it was described as a &#8220;wild west scene&#8221; by Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Eugene McConnell, who was at the site of the cull.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The UFU said it had requested an &#8220;immediate&#8221; meeting with Muir.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">UFU President John McLenaghan said the level of concern among its members &#8220;cannot be ignored&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Political representatives also expressed concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">DUP MLA for Fermanagh South Tyrone Deborah Erskine said the case raised serious questions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Independent Mid Ulster councillor Kevin McElvogue said: &#8220;It&#8217;s inhumane the way this cull had been carried out in view of neighbours.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An external review has been ordered into an incident which saw 51 cattle being shot dead in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-725253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}