Warning: Disturbing content

• Mangakino farmer Warren Koberstein must surrender to prison after losing his appeal against a jail sentence.
• Koberstein was convicted of animal cruelty, involving the mistreatment of hundreds of sheep and cattle.
• The Court of Appeal upheld the two-year, four-month sentence, deeming it not excessive.

A 75-year-old farmer convicted of animal cruelty has until tomorrow to surrender to prison after losing his appeal against his jail sentence.

Warren George Michael Koberstein, a farmer of 40 years from Mangakino, north of Taupō, was sentenced to two years and four months’ prison in August.

He was also ordered by Judge Tony Snell not to own farm animals or be in charge of anyone who looks after farm animals again.

Koberstein appealed his prison sentence in the Court of Appeal in Wellington in March and Justices Rebecca Ellis, Rachel Dunningham and Layne Harvey released their decision dismissing the appeal yesterday.

Koberstein’s lawyer, Philip Morgan, KC, appealed on the grounds the prison sentence was excessive given Koberstein was also banned from farming. He asked that a home detention sentence be imposed instead.

Koberstein has been on bail pending the outcome of the appeal.

A jury found Koberstein guilty of 11 charges in March last year. The charges were laid by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) after a complaint and subsequent search of his farm in July 2019.

He was found to have wilfully ill-treated 33 sheep that had to be destroyed, and failed to ensure proper and sufficient food for 834 pregnant sheep, 86 cattle and 32 heifers.

Other charges related to sheep stuck on their backs with their eyes pecked out by hawks, one with a neck too deformed to eat properly, and another with an injured foot seen walking on its knuckle.

Judge Snell said at sentencing that the offending was serious as it involved hundreds of animals in very poor to extensively poor body condition, suffering over a lengthy time.

Despite numerous warnings and previous convictions for similar offending, Koberstein “buried his head in the sand”. Judge Snell said Koberstein was “unrepentant”.

At appeal, Morgan said Judge Snell should have reduced the sentence by 12 months, not four months, for the lifetime farming ban.

Warren Koberstein during his Rotorua District Court trial in March 2024. Photo / Andrew Warner

Morgan said disqualifying Koberstein from farming effectively meant his life’s work was lost.

He also argued Judge Snell’s prison starting point was too high, given Koberstein’s age and the fact he did not mean to starve the animals.

Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy said Judge Snell’s sentence was appropriate and should be upheld.

She said the 17% discount was generous, given the circumstances.

She highlighted Koberstein’s lengthy history of MPI interventions before the 2019 offending. She said this history showed Koberstein was farming animals with poor body conditions in 2013, 2016 and 2018.

The appeal decision said the justices agreed with McConachy that the overall approach to sentencing was generous and the end sentence was not manifestly excessive.

“An uplift for the previous involvement of MPI and Mr Koberstein’s previous convictions could easily have been warranted. Mr Koberstein’s conduct did, on more than one occasion, cause the extended and acute suffering of many animals, leading to their death.”

They said in the decision that Parliament had provided for terms of imprisonment for this type of offending in the Animal Welfare Act and had encouraged courts to treat such offending as criminal.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest covering mainly and social issues.