An Ontario veterinarian will serve nine months of house arrest for falsifying over 100 veterinary certificates relating to exported Holstein embryos.
Brian Hill was convicted Nov. 17 in the Ontario Court of Justice in Woodstock, on a “global count” of violating the federal Health of Animals Act, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Tuesday.
The conviction stems from a CFIA investigation that found “inconsistencies” in the information Hill gave to a complainant, as well as to Holstein Canada and the CFIA.
Hill’s information “appeared to misrepresent the numbers of embryos collected from the complainant’s cows and the sires used for fertilization,” the agency said in a release.
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CFIA’s investigation found that Hill, between January 2006 and December 2007, had made false statements in 103 veterinary certificates to six veterinary inspectors regarding 7,670 embryos he exported.
The violation for which Hill has been sentenced is in the section of the Act prohibiting anyone from making false or misleading statements in person or in writing to analysts, officers or inspectors.
According to Ontario farm writer Jim Romahn in the Dec. 3 Manitoba Co-operator, Hill still faces a number of lawsuits, including some from farmers whose claims allege the theft of high-value embryos.
The Dec. 3 report names Stanton Bros., north of London, Ont., as the complainant whose claims led to Hill’s conviction.
