A farm worker has been found guilty of repeatedly running over a pig with a quad bike before beating it with a stick.
Janusz Wadzinski rode the vehicle over the back of the screaming sow around six times while he carried out his work at Clackmarras Farm near Elgin.
His cruel actions were witnessed by two horrified dog walkers, who told the trial at Elgin Sheriff Court how, when they confronted Wadzinski, he told them: “She not do as she’s told” and “I go now and I kill her”.
Court told of incident in farm field
The trial heard how Wadzinski, 29, had been working for six years at Clackmarras Farm, just outside Elgin, for Karro Food Group.
On March 20 2020, he was seen chasing a single pig on his quad, striking her hind legs with the bike until she fell and then running the quad up onto her her back before rolling off of her.
A mother and daughter out walking their dogs saw him do this at least six times and the elder of the women went on to watch in horror as he then “whacked” the pig repeatedly with a long stick.
Claire Hendry, 51, who lives near the farm, told the court she was walking her French bulldog alongside her daughter Lauren and her Chihuahua when she witnessed the cruelty across the field.
“He was driving up behind her, knocked her back legs to knock her down and as she fell he was rolling up on her back and rolling off again,” Mrs Hendry told fiscal depute Shay Treanor.
“He repeated this more than six times. He was shouting but we didn’t understand as it was in Polish.
“There was a lot of shouting and swearing. We are animal lovers so it was horrific, absolutely horrific the way he was coming for her. I was a state.”
‘Every time you heard a whack there was a squeal’
As Mrs Hendry ran down the field towards Wadzinski she saw the pig being herded into a hay bale enclosure where it was further abused.
“I will never forget that white stick,” she said. “It was three-four feet long. He picked it up and he was beating and beating her. Every time you heard a whack there was a squeal.
“This is a man who is meant to be in charge of these animals’ welfare and this is what he was doing to her.
“The pig was traumatised and squealing. I was screaming and shouting ‘oi’ at him and he eventually stopped and came over.
“He folded his arms and just said ‘what’.”
When the woman told Wadzinski he shouldn’t be chasing and striking the animal, he replied: “She not do as she’s told”.
When she said that was no excuse for his behaviour, he replied: “I go now and I kill her. I can because I work here.”
Lauren Hendry, 26, also witnessed the quad bike incident and told the court it left her in tears.
After briefly returning home she was so “shocked and disgusted” that she went back to the farm and spoke to a farm manager, who told her: “I will have a word with him”.
“I felt like I wasn’t being believed,” she added.
Worker denied incident happened
Taking to the stand himself, Wadzinksi told his defence lawyer Iain Maltman he continues to be employed at the farm but for the last six months has worked as a maintenance man rather than with the pigs.
He denied being on the quad behind the pig, denied hitting it with a stick and suggested he and his colleague worked side-by-side permanently to move the pigs from one paddock to another.
When the sow wouldn’t go, he claimed he was told to get a trailer to move it and that the incidents of abuse simply never happened.
He told Mr Maltman: “I didn’t say I would kill the pig. I said she was causing problems and most likely she would have to be shot.”
He claimed he said that in response to racist remarks being made towards him by Mrs Hendry and retaliated because he was “upset and tired”.
Karro’s breeding herd manager Cameron Fordyce, 53, assured the court Wadzinksi had no authority or means of killing any pigs and said having inspected the animal himself he saw no signs of injury.
However, Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood delivered his verdict immediately, rejecting the evidence of defence witnesses.
“In relation to charge one, I have no doubts you are guilty as libelled,” he told Wadzinksi.
Ban is ‘not long enough’
He fined Wadzinksi, who lives in work-provided accommodation at Dykeside Cottages, Birnie, Elgin, £500 and banned him from keeping or working with animals for one year.
Mr Maltman said this ban could mean the end of Wadzinski’s employment.
Speaking after the verdict, Mrs Hendy told The Press and Journal the punishment was “terrible” and that she wanted to see Wadzinksi jailed.
“It was just horrific,” she added.
Her daughter Lauren added: “I don’t think one year is long enough of a ban. It’s ridiculous. I think the animal was just seen as meat.”
Wadzinski was found guilty of causing an animal unnecessary suffering.
‘We do not tolerate animal cruelty’
A spokesman for the company Karro Food Limited (formerly Grampian Country Pork) told the Press and Journal that “appropriate action will be taken” following the verdict.
He said: “As a responsible employer, Karro Food Limited ensures high welfare standards of pigs on our own farms and throughout our supply chain.
“We do not condone or tolerate animal cruelty in any form.
“We note the court’s guilty verdict in relation to Janusz Wadzinski’s treatment of the animal in question and appropriate action will be taken.”
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