The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office today indicted a farmer and his son on charges including document forgery and fraud in a case pertaining to last year’s African swine fever outbreak.
The office said it completed its investigation today, finding that the two farmers falsified official documents, underreported pig deaths and profited from the sale of potentially infected pigs.
The two have been indicted on charges including document forgery, fraud leading to illicit gains and for contraventions of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法), the office said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Prosecutors said they are seeking a heavy sentence.
On Oct. 22, a case of African swine fever was detected at Chiao-hsing Livestock Farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), prompting a 15-day nationwide ban on transporting and slaughtering pigs.
The financial toll of the outbreak — including disruption to businesses and subsequent subsidies — is estimated at NT$2.1 billion (US$67.11 million).
The owner, surnamed Chen (陳), 85, and his son, also surnamed Chen, 58, were detained without visitation rights in November.
The investigation found that the pair forged triplicate forms for recording the death of livestock to rendering plants and local animal health authorities, prosecutors said.
They under-reported the number of dead pigs by 46, while about 30 pigs that may have been infected and had not completed the required 15-day withdrawal period from antibiotics were sent to be auctioned, although two died in transit, prosecutors said.
They fraudulently obtained NT$320,000 for the sale of the 28 pigs at a meat market in Taichung’s Daan District (大安), they said.
The pair also sent predated photographs of cooked food waste to the Ministry of Environment, which monitors treatment of industrial waste to be used as pig feed, prosecutors said.
They falsified reports of food waste reuse operations, fuel usage and livestock health declaration forms, they said.
Six prosecutors launched the investigation on Nov. 3, searching the farm and the father and son’s residence, before calling the two in for questioning.
They were detained incommunicado as the crime was suspected to be severe and there was deemed to be a risk of evidence destruction, collusion and witness tampering.
Starting on Oct. 10, a large number of pigs started dying at the farm and the two failed to report to the authorities, instead administering antibiotics without supervision from a veterinarian, prosecutors said.
To prevent the outbreak from becoming public and affecting auction sales, the farmers conspired to send some of the dead pigs to a licensed rendering operator, while the rest were sent to an unidentified illegal operator for disposal, to reduce the number of reported deaths on the farm, they said.
The two denied all criminal wrongdoing during the investigation, which hindered epidemic prevention and tracing efforts, prosecutors said.
Their actions were motivated by keeping costs down and evading responsibility, which disregarded public interest and industry safety, they said, adding that they would request the court impose a heavy sentence.
Additional reporting by CNA
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