Joseph Nathan, Staff Writer
A stag was found dying in mud, antlers tangled in a fence, too weak to stand. It had to be euthanised—just one casualty in a Northland farm where animals were left to starve through winter.
This week, Kaiwaka farmer Niven John Lowrie admitted in the Whangārei District Court to neglecting dozens of animals on his 30-acre deer farm. Inspectors from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) discovered 14 deer dead, and the rest severely underfed—some receiving barely half of their daily nutritional needs.
Lowrie had 145 red deer, 60 sheep, and eight beef cattle on the property. Over the winter of 2023, he failed to provide supplementary feed and didn’t monitor their condition. MPI inspectors visited three times. By August, the animals were skeletal. In September, they found the adult stag dying, wedged in thick mud and fencing wire. It was beyond saving.
Court documents revealed Lowrie provided just 49 percent of the required feed over three months. He admitted to MPI he knew there wasn’t enough food but did not take action.
A history of harm
Lowrie is not new to animal welfare charges. In 2015, he was convicted of 12 counts of ill-treatment after 12 dairy cows were found dead on another property. At the time, fences were broken, water troughs disconnected, and deer carcasses were rotting in paddocks. Thirteen other animals were emaciated. He was fined \$4000 and ordered to repay \$2808.
Despite decades of farming experience, and running a second dairy farm at the time, Lowrie failed again to meet basic welfare standards. He’s now facing sentencing for the latest charges—his second prosecution for large-scale animal neglect in under a decade.
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