Jury acquits man who fed ham to sheep (Animal Rights Whacko Alert)

Herald Sun ^ | 5/7/2005

[Born Conservative]

AN animal rights activist charged after he added ham to animal feed to stop the export of live sheep to the Middle East, has been cleared.

Ralph Hahnheuser, 42, pleaded not guilty in the County Court in Geelong to contaminating feed to cause economic loss. A jury yesterday found him not guilty.

Animal Liberation activists welcomed the verdict as a "fantastic win".

"This couldn't come at a better time with the news the live export trade to Saudi Arabia is about to resume," Animal Liberation NSW executive director Mark Pearson said.

"This is despite the Government's own Keniry inquiry report recommending exporters not send sheep from southern ports to the high summer in the Middle East, which is what will happen now they have reopened the trade like this.

"The jury has made it very clear that he is not

a criminal."

The court heard Mr Hahnheuser, a leading member of Animal Liberation in SA, added pig meat to the feed of sheep in a Portland feedlot on November 19, 2003.

The sheep were waiting to be sent to Kuwait the following day, prosecutor Mark Gamble, QC, said.

Strict Muslim dietary laws prohibit eating pork products or products that have come in contact with pig meat.

Mr Gamble told the court Department of Primary Industries investigators found shredded ham among feed pellets in troughs at the feedlot.

As a result, an export licence could not be issued and about 70,000 sheep had to stay at Portland feedlots for another two weeks.

Defence counsel David Edwardson, QC, told jurors there was no dispute Mr Hahnheuser, of Semaphore, South Australia, put ham in the food and that he called a press conference to publicise it.

He said his client did it to prevent unnecessary cruelty to sheep and not, as the prosecution said, to contaminate the feed.

[RansomOttawa]

Mmmmm . . . ham-stuffed lamb. *smacks lips*