Food giant liable for animal deaths

FOOD manufacturing giant Pioneer Foods has been found liable for the death of dozens of Aliwal North farmer Johan Bekker’s cattle, goats and sheep, which ate contaminated food from one of its outlets.

Grahamstown High Court Judge Murray Lowe yesterday found that Bekker’s 46 cattle, 71 goats, and 80 sheep worth an estimated R825 000 died as a result of phosphine poisoning contained in the stock food bought from Pioneer Foods.

Bekker estimated the consequential loss in terms of dairy calves amounted to a further R12-million. Phosphine is a highly toxic product commonly used for the fumigation of dried grain.

The 37-year-old farmer owns two farms in the Aliwal North area running cattle on the one and goats and sheep on the other. He told the court that in August 2011 he had, as usual, bought screenings from a Pioneer Foods outlet.

Screenings consist of mealie cobs and leaves. When he had purchased the food he had noticed a sharp smell that made his eyes and nose burn.

He had taken the food home and mixed it in his barn on a clean cement floor as usual.

He had then put it out in feeding tyres for the cattle and in closed self-recharging feeding bins for his sheep and goats.

The tyres were empty at the time while the self-recharging feeders still had some feed in them. A day later his cattle began dying. He called his vet, Dr Casper Troskie, who took samples from the carcasses.

After a week, 90% of the Amazango farm animals that had eaten the food were dead.

Lowe ruled that Pioneer Foods was liable for damages.

The issue of damages quantum will be determined at a later stage.