456 cattle involved in 56 DAERA slaughter-team operations, new figures reveal
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Newly released government figures reveal 456 cattle were involved in 56 recorded operations by DAERA’s Humane Slaughter Team — putting the controversial destruction of 51 cattle near Fivemiletown into stark new context.
The figures show the June operation, now at the centre of an independent external review, was one of the largest deployments contained in the records released by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
They also reveal repeated use of the specialist team across Northern Ireland under animal welfare, tuberculosis, cattle identification and disease-control legislation, including four entries involving 36 cattle recorded under the Ballymena area.
New figures reveal scale of operations
The information was released after DAERA was asked under Freedom of Information how many cattle had been shot dead in fields by its Humane Slaughter Team over the five years from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2026.
DAERA’s accompanying dataset actually runs from January 2021 to June 2026 and lists 56 entries involving 456 cattle. The earlier months account for some of that total, but the full data supplied by the department provides a wider picture of the team’s activity during the period covered by its records.
At the top of the dataset is an operation involving 93 cattle recorded under Enniskillen in February 2021, followed by 60 under Newtownards in January 2025 and 51 under Dungannon in June 2026.
That 51-cattle entry corresponds with the Fivemiletown operation on 29 and 30 June which has prompted months of controversy and is now being examined by independent reviewer Dr Martin Blake.
Fivemiletown stands out among dozens of deployments
DAERA has previously confirmed that 50 cattle were euthanised at Fivemiletown on 29 June, with the final animal euthanised the following day.
The new data does not resolve the arguments surrounding how that operation was conducted or whether alternatives were available. But it provides important context which was not previously clear: operations involving that number of cattle sit at the very top end of the Humane Slaughter Team activity disclosed by the department.
The Fivemiletown entry is recorded under the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 — the same legislation DAERA has said underpinned its actions in implementing the court Deprivation Order.
Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir has said officials concluded there was “no reasonable alternative” to euthanising the remaining cattle after the herd keeper, who had been disqualified for life from keeping animals, failed to dispose of the entire herd within the period provided.
The Minister has also said he neither authorised nor directed the operation. Critics, including farming representatives and political figures, have challenged aspects of DAERA’s handling of the case and questioned whether alternatives to killing the animals had been exhausted.
Those competing accounts are among the reasons the independent review was established.
DAERA cannot identify how many were shot in fields
Despite releasing records covering hundreds of cattle, DAERA cannot provide a definitive answer to the question that prompted the FOI request — how many were actually shot dead in fields.
The department said: “While the Department holds records relating to Humane Slaughter Team operations, it does not record the specific detail to identify cattle shot in fields.”
DAERA said its data is collated and held by month and year in line with EU reporting obligations.
That means the 456 figure should not be interpreted as 456 cattle shot in fields. It represents the total number of animals across the 56 Humane Slaughter Team entries contained in the dataset released by DAERA.
Four Ballymena entries involved 36 cattle
The records also provide a local picture of the team’s work, with four separate entries recorded under Ballymena involving 36 cattle.
Eight cattle appear in a May 2023 entry under the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011.
Two much larger Ballymena entries follow in January 2024, involving 15 and 12 cattle. Those are recorded under Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Regulations, commonly known as TSE regulations.
A fourth Ballymena entry, involving one animal in January 2025, is recorded under the Welfare of Animals Act.
The dataset does not provide the individual circumstances of those cases or identify a specific disease, welfare problem or other factual reason why each animal was destroyed. DAERA provides only the legislation associated with each entry, meaning it would be unsafe to infer more specific circumstances from the figures.
There is another important geographical qualification: DAERA describes the location column as “County / DVO area”. The Ballymena entries therefore indicate the departmental area under which the operations were recorded and should not automatically be interpreted as operations within Ballymena town itself.
Wider Northern Ireland picture
Across the dataset, some areas appear repeatedly. Dungannon entries account for 129 cattle, while Newtownards entries account for 121 and Enniskillen entries for 100.
Other entries are recorded under Newry, Coleraine, Mallusk, Armagh, Co Down, Co Armagh and Omagh, illustrating that Humane Slaughter Team deployments have taken place across a broad geographical spread.
The legislation attached to the operations also varies considerably. Many are recorded under the Welfare of Animals Act, while others cite the Tuberculosis Control Order, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Regulations or cattle identification legislation.
Those legal distinctions matter because the dataset brings together operations carried out in potentially very different circumstances. The figures alone cannot establish that other deployments were directly comparable with Fivemiletown.
More than seven in ten recorded under same legislation as Fivemiletown
Of the 456 cattle listed across the 56 entries released by DAERA, 325 — around 71% — were associated with operations recorded under the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, the same legislation listed for the 51-cattle Fivemiletown operation.
That makes the Welfare of Animals Act by far the most common legislative basis represented in the released records. However, the figures do not show that those other operations happened for the same specific reason, involved a Deprivation Order, or were carried out in circumstances comparable with Fivemiletown. DAERA’s dataset provides the legislation associated with each entry but does not give the detailed circumstances behind individual cases.
Scrutiny over Fivemiletown continues
The release comes as DAERA faces sustained demands for information about what happened at Fivemiletown and how the decisions behind the operation were taken.
A separate Freedom of Information disclosure published on 15 September reveals the department had received 15 FOI requests relating to Fivemiletown by 26 August.
DAERA said all 15 had received responses, but only one resulted in information being partially released — a redacted copy of the Deprivation Order.
The department applied Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act, relating to information intended for future publication, to the requests and said Public Interest Tests had been completed.
The use of that exemption does not establish wrongdoing and does not mean information will necessarily remain withheld. It reflects DAERA’s stated position that relevant material is intended for future publication.
Independent review now moves towards findings
Dr Martin Blake, a former Chief Veterinary Officer for Ireland, is examining DAERA’s planning, decision-making and implementation of the Fivemiletown operation.
His terms of reference include whether the department acted in accordance with the relevant legal framework, departmental procedures and accepted standards of public administration, as well as the options considered, planning and risk assessment and decisions made as events unfolded.
The window for members of the public and external parties to submit relevant, verifiable information to the review closed at 4pm on 15 September.
Mr Muir has also introduced a new safeguard following the controversy, requiring any future deployment of the Humane Slaughter Team to receive advance authorisation from Northern Ireland’s Chief Veterinary Officer.
DAERA has said the review’s findings and recommendations will be published after its completion, which was expected in early autumn.
The newly released figures cannot determine whether the decisions made at Fivemiletown were right or wrong. What they do show for the first time is the wider scale of the work carried out by DAERA’s Humane Slaughter Team — 456 cattle across 56 entries in the records released — and that the operation which triggered the current independent review was among the largest contained within them.
The 56 operations in full
DAERA’s released data lists the following 56 entries. The department provides the month, number of cattle, County/DVO area and legislation associated with each case, but does not give the method used to kill the animals or a detailed account of the circumstances behind each operation. DAERA separately states that its records cannot specifically identify cattle shot in fields.
January 2021 — Co Down — 3 cattle — Cattle Identification (Notification of Births, Deaths and Movements) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999. Method not stated.
February 2021 — Enniskillen — 93 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
March 2021 — Co Down — 3 cattle — Cattle Identification Regulations. Method not stated.
April 2021 — Newry — 1 animal — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
October 2021 — Enniskillen — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order (Northern Ireland) 1999, as amended. Method not stated.
November 2021 — Co Armagh — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
January 2022 — Mallusk — 4 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
February 2022 — Co Down — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
March 2022 — Newry — 5 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
March 2022 — Newry — 18 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
April 2022 — Newtownards — 19 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
May 2022 — Dungannon — 8 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
June 2022 — Co Down — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
August 2022 — Armagh — 2 cattle — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
November 2022 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
January 2023 — Enniskillen — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
February 2023 — Newtownards — 7 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
May 2023 — Ballymena — 8 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
June 2023 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
June 2023 — Mallusk — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
June 2023 — Mallusk — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
July 2023 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
July 2023 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
August 2023 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
August 2023 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
August 2023 — Enniskillen — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
October 2023 — Coleraine — 2 cattle — Cattle Identification Regulations. Method not stated.
October 2023 — Armagh — 4 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
November 2023 — Newtownards — 3 cattle — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
January 2024 — Coleraine — 10 cattle — Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Regulations (NI) 2018. Method not stated.
January 2024 — Ballymena — 15 cattle — Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Regulations (NI) 2019. Method not stated.
January 2024 — Ballymena — 12 cattle — Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Regulations (NI) 2020. Method not stated.
January 2024 — Dungannon — 1 animal — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
January 2024 — Dungannon — 13 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
April 2024 — Newry — 2 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
May 2024 — Enniskillen — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
May 2024 — Dungannon — 14 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
May 2024 — Newtownards — 6 cattle — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
August 2024 — Newtownards — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
October 2024 — Omagh — 1 animal — Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Regulations (NI) 2020. Method not stated.
January 2025 — Ballymena — 1 animal — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
January 2025 — Newtownards — 60 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
February 2025 — Dungannon — 6 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
March 2025 — Enniskillen — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
April 2025 — Dungannon — 15 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
April 2025 — Enniskillen — 1 animal — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
May 2025 — Dungannon — 17 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
May 2025 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
June 2025 — Newry — 2 cattle — Cattle Identification Regulations. Method not stated.
July 2025 — Dungannon — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
March 2026 — Coleraine — 1 animal — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
March 2026 — Dungannon — 3 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
March 2026 — Newtownards — 15 cattle — Cattle Identification Regulations. Method not stated.
April 2026 — Enniskillen — 1 animal — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. Method not stated.
June 2026 — Newtownards — 10 cattle — Tuberculosis Control Order. Method not stated.
June 2026 — Dungannon — 51 cattle — Welfare of Animals Act (NI) 2011. This is the entry corresponding to the Fivemiletown operation; DAERA has separately confirmed that 50 cattle were euthanised on 29 June and one on 30 June.
The legislation provides some indication of the legal circumstances behind the deployments — including animal welfare, tuberculosis control, TSE controls and cattle identification requirements — but DAERA’s dataset does not provide enough information to state the specific factual reason why the cattle in each individual entry were killed.
