By John Anthony
A New Zealand dairy farmer faces possible extradition to Chile for allegedly brutally killing more than 1500 calves while working in the South American country.
Leyla Chahin Valenzuela, deputy prosecutor in Puerto Montt, said Zachary Reuben Ward was wanted for alleged crimes relating to the mistreatment of animals. A notice filed by Valenzuela with the Court of Appeal of Valdivia says "urgency is implicit" in getting New Zealand authorities to hand Ward over because he was considered a flight risk. She wants Ward held in custody in Chile before standing trial in Valdivia.
Ward left Chile in 2014 following the emergence of a video allegedly showing him slaughtering calves using a hammer, and by injecting air into them. The video, which emerged in 2014, was aired in New Zealand at the time, and Ward was named by TVNZ as the man clubbing a bobby calf to death. The video was taken on a farm in Chile owned by New Zealand company Manuka. A month before the video appeared Chilean authorities launched an investigation into Manuka for alleged animal abuse in killing 6000 calves unusable in the milk production process.
Manuka's head office is in Chile and in 2014 it owned 22,500 hectares in Chile with farms in Los Lagos and Los Ríos. Manuka director Steve Smith said Ward left the company in 2014. Ward is now the chief executive of New Zealand dairy company Canterbury Grasslands. The company has dairy farms in Canterbury, Southland and Missouri, United States. Ward has been approved for comment.
When Stuff phoned Grasslands' Canterbury office a man said the company's chairman and director Mark Townshend was the best person to comment. He would not provide contact details for Townshend. Townshend, who is a director of Manuka and a former Fonterra director, told media in 2014 he had sympathy for Ward because there was no vet available to give the animals the lethal injection required under Chile's rules.
Prominent New Zealand businessmen, former Fonterra chairman, Sir Henry van der Heyden is chairman of Manuka and personally holds a small shareholding in Grasslands. He is also a director and shareholder of Pascaro Investments, which owns 31 per cent of Grasslands, making it the company's biggest shareholder. Fonterra director Brent Goldsack is also a director of Grasslands as is former MediaWorks and NZX chief executive Mark Weldon. Van der Heyden, who is also Rabobank chairman, spoke at an Institute of Directors event in Hamilton in 2015 about his experience joining Manuka during the bobby calf issue.
The event synopsis said the animal welfare issue "threatened to undermine shareholder value".
"Sir Henry will discuss how the board confronted and managed this issue, the responsibilities and risks a director needs to consider in a crisis, his views on how a board can best manage these events, and the learnings from this particular incident."
Bobby calf treatment has been the subject of debate in New Zealand in recent years, particularly in light of a 2015 animal abuse case which centered around a Te Kauwhata pet food company's treatment of bobby calves.
Graphic footage emerged of bobby calves being picked up at farms and thrown on trucks, as well as being kicked and bludgeoned, and then being clubbed to death at an abattoir.
Down Cow owner Alan Martyn Cleaver was sentenced to six months' community detention, 180 hours of community work and fined $ 90,000.
In 2017 the number of bobby calves sent to slaughter fell, which some in the industry said was the result of farmers seeking to adopt more humane practices.
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