IREOSA LTD T/A ROBERT HONEYBUN & SON AND DORCHESTER CONVICTED OF ANIMAL CRUELTY
In 2022, dairy farmer Robert Mark Honeybun, trading as Ireosa Ltd, located at Higher Kingstone, Russell Farm, Winterbourne Abbas, Dorchester DT2 9EU, was convicted of animal cruelty.Honeybun, born in November 1960, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a cow and a calf by neglecting their care, along with multiple other offences related to the conditions on his farm.
The court was informed that in April 2021, officers from Dorset Council’s trading standards service, accompanied by a veterinarian from the Animal and Plant Health Agency, visited the farm.
They discovered three calves that were visibly sick and emaciated, along with dirty pens, water troughs, and feeding equipment.
A cow with a severely injured front leg, which had gone untreated for three months, was also found.
During the inspection, officers had to rescue a calf trapped in wire left in a field with livestock.
Additionally, the farm was littered with animal bones and a skull scattered around, and dead calves were found in pens with living animals.
The court was told that Dorset Council’s trading standards team had been conducting inspections of the farm for over six years to ensure improved welfare standards.
As a consequence of the April 2021 visit, the farm was stripped of its Red Tractor certification for at least two years.
Representatives of Ireosa Ltd appeared at Poole Magistrates Court for sentencing on 20 September 2022, having earlier pleaded guilty to seven offences.
In November 2021, it was reported that Robert Mark Honeybun faced individual cruelty charges related to the cattle, though it remains unclear if those charges will proceed separately.
The offences concerned breaches of legislation on animal health and welfare, animal by-products, and feed regulations.
These charges resulted from an investigation by Dorset Council Trading Standards.
Honeybun and his company were fined a total of £52,650 and ordered to pay prosecution costs amounting to £6,186.
