Kuriger’s husband and son in court on animal cruelty charges
The case of the farming awardwinning husband and son of National MP Barbara Kuriger charged with ill-treating dozens of cows has stalled, with the defence waiting on thousands of pages of evidence.
Louis Stephen Kuriger, Tony Michael Kuriger – the husband and son of the MP, respectively – and Lloyd Timothy Harris appeared in the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday, each facing 11 charges of ill-treating animals. A company they direct, which the MP part-owns, Oxbow Dairies Ltd, faces the same charges.
According to court documents released to Stuff, the alleged offending happened between October 2016 and April 2017 at Hukanui, a small settlement between Eketa¯ huna and Pahiatua.
They allegedly failed to protect and diagnose cows with lameness, recklessly ill-treated 54 cows suffering from chronic lameness, and did not remove surgical bandages from other cows.
One charge alleges 25 cows had to be euthanised due to their condition.
Tony and Louis Kuriger are both award-winning sharemilkers, having won dairy industry awards in 2014 and 1987, respectively.
Barbara Kuriger, the MP for Taranaki King-Country, does not face any charges.
Defence lawyer Phillip Drummond said the defendants could not enter pleas, as they were waiting on substantial evidence from the Ministry for Primary Industries.
‘‘There are 2300 pages to come. I need an opportunity to read that.’’ Judge Jim Large remanded the case until late-April for an update on how evidence disclosure was going.