MYSTERY ON FARM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20050, 23 September 1939, Page 8

MYSTERY ON FARM

PIGS AND TURKEYS DIE SEQUEL TO MORNING FEED Thirty-live pigs and eight turkeys dropped dead on Mr. W. G. McAnulty’s farm at Pokeno after being fed with a mixture of skim milk and meat soup. The meat soup was made the previous day and some was fed out that night without any untoward effect. An employee went round the feeding pens in a horse-drawn vehicle at about 7.30 next morning, carrying the containers with the skim milk and soup. These were mixed as they were poured into the feed receptacles. About 10 minutes later the pigs and turkeys which had been feeding at the receptacles were noticed to be rearing up and falling over, quivering, and dying within a few seconds. The nature of the feed given to the pigs was that usually put out to them in the morning. The symptoms suggest strychnine poisoning. Detectives are investigating'. Pigs which did not come up to the receptacles, including the litters of three brood sows which were among those poisoned, escaped, Mr. McAnulty estimates his loss at about £IOO.