Fivemiletown 'outrage doesn't extend beyond an action on one day' rather than 'overall commitment to increased animal welfare'

Agricultural Envionment and Rural Affairs board member John Blair recognises that the graphic images of healthy animals being slaughtered during the Fivemiletown cattle cull were "absolutely horrific" but what he "doesn't understand was the political determination to still accuse a minister when all of us knew the minister didn’t sign off the operation".

"It doesn't surprise me at all that people jumped on a bandwagon to attack a minister they had earlier attacked over the attention he was paying to environmental matters, decarbonisation, and cleaning up our air through reducing ammonia,” the Alliance veteran said.

"It's no coincidence that when something happened that it could be levelled at Andrew Muir, by politicians from mainly the unionist parties who jumped on it and went on the attack – but what really frustrates me is that none of them have given, in my opinion, sufficient attention to the period of time that led up to the cull".

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Humane Slaughter Team euthanised 51 cattle across three sites on land near Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone in late June 2026.

The action followed a court deprivation order and animal welfare convictions against the farm owner, who was disqualified for life from keeping animals after cows were found emaciated and starving.

At the time Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir stated that officials had "no reasonable alternative" as the semi-feral and horned cattle could not be safely rounded up, contained, or transported due to a lack of proper facilities.

Mr Blair said his concern was that it “struck him as completely inconsistent that a group of people who are claiming to be utterly appalled at the destruction of cattle make such scant reference to the four years (beforehand) in which cattle were found, quote from the court, ‘knee deep in slurry, bones lying on the site, and dead animals lying among living animals’.

He added: “We all know that for four years, serious animal welfare neglect to the level of cruelty had persisted on a farm, and DAERA had done everything it could to facilitate the owner, help them out, try to guide them into a better place".

"So the picture of a healthy herd and a very settled environment is completely inaccurate.

"I've not heard any politicians calling for the focus of the review to be a wider animal welfare issues".

The Newtownabbey-born politician said he made a request for Dr Martin Blake, the former Chief Veterinary Officer for Ireland leading the review into the cull, to make clear the circumstances how “after being aware of an animal neglect situation for a four-year period, a government department could end up taking action like that".

"I think politicians have been utterly duplicitous on this - if they had come up with a list of demands about increased inspections and farm animal welfare, then I will take them more seriously with their full outrage.

"It appears to me, that those who've spoken the loudest, some of them from flatbed trucks outside Stormont, some of them from the sidelines, some of them in the assembly chamber, that their outrage doesn't extend beyond an action on one day, and I therefore have to question their overall commitment to increased animal welfare".

Mr Blair added that "culls are nothing new" in Northern Ireland.

"Culls have taken place under the leadership of previous Agriculture Ministers in Northern Ireland.

"I could suggest they've taken place and certainly been arranged or been facilitated, or frameworks put in place under the leadership of earlier Agriculture ministers.

"So these are not new”.

He added that “spokespeople for agricultural organisations who were against Andrew Muir from the very start because of his environmental stance were very critical of the cull, so criticism was nothing new”.

“They don't like having a minister who is focused as much on the environment as he has on agriculture, and focuses as much on rural affairs as on the environment.

"They find that hard to deal with. The bottom line here is a minister who will not be beholden to any outside interest or lobby organization”.