Kit PetersANIMAL CRUELTY: Senedd candidate and councillor banned from keeping animals for life after pigs and goats found in ‘appalling’ conditions
A community councillor who stood as a Senedd candidate in May’s election has been banned from keeping animals for life after pigs and goats in his care were found living in “appalling” conditions.
David Wayne Erasmus kept the animals in old windowless shipping containers awash with liquid faeces, urine and rotting food, with outdoor pens that were “just mud,” Swansea Crown Court heard.
Several pigs seized from his land died within days of being rescued — “as a direct result of the conditions they were kept in,” the court was told.
The floor of a shipping container strewn with putrefying waste food, which the court heard was used to house animals. Image: Swansea CouncilThe court heard he was also caught building a “dam” of animal bones and entrails in a stream running across his field, and had set a “trap” for council officers — a wooden pallet with nails driven through it — at an access point to the land.
Lee Reynolds, prosecuting on behalf of Swansea Council, said the case concerned the conditions in which pigs and goats were kept on land off Bolgoed Road in Pontarddulais.
He stressed the prosecution was not brought on the basis that Erasmus intended to cause suffering, but that his ability to provide the required standard of care was “significantly lacking” and he was “ill-equipped” to look after the animals.
The court heard council officers first attended the land in November 2023, finding a shipping container housing goats with a floor “saturated with urine and faeces” and covered with “significant amounts of putrefying waste food.” Pigs were being kept in “extremely poor shelter” with a lack of water and a floor of liquid faeces.
Pigs beside a shelter on the land near Pontarddulais, in conditions a prosecutor described as “appalling.” Image: Swansea CouncilDespite follow-up visits, letters and advice on what needed to improve, conditions deteriorated. On a visit in January 2024, officers found goats “cowering” in the corner of a pitch-black container that smelled strongly of ammonia, with some animals at first unable to get to their feet.
The prosecutor said that as officers released the goats, Erasmus became “agitated” and at one point began hammering nails into pieces of wood. The pigs, meanwhile, were “hock-deep in mud” with only “filthy water” to drink, and one was in “severe distress.” The animals were seized.
The court heard that the following month the council received complaints about new animals being kept on the land, and officers returned to find Erasmus had restocked with goats. On later visits in March and April the animals were again found in “simply appalling conditions.”
Wayne Erasmus(Cwmaman Community Council)
In total the charges covered 27 goats, kids and pigs. Erasmus had earlier pleaded guilty to three animal welfare offences, on the basis that he had not intended to cause suffering.
He asked for two further offences, under animal by-products regulations, to be taken into consideration — relating to bones, skeletons and entrails placed in the watercourse “apparently to build some sort of dam structure,” with further animal remains found in his vehicle and in feeding trays on the land.
Erasmus is no stranger to the ballot box. He stood for the pro-independence party Gwlad in Sir Gaerfyrddin in May’s Senedd election, finishing last in the seat, having also stood for the party in Gower at the 2021 Senedd election.
He has also repeatedly sought election to community councils across the Swansea and Carmarthenshire border in recent years, and is currently listed as a serving member of three of them — Grovesend and Waungron Community Council, which covers part of Pontarddulais, along with Cwmaman Town Council and Ammanford Town Council in Carmarthenshire, where he represents Gwlad.
Under local government rules, a community order does not automatically disqualify someone from holding office as a councillor — automatic disqualification generally applies only where a person is given a custodial sentence of three months or more.
Matt Murphy, defending, said Erasmus had taken a lease on the land from the Penllergare Estate with a “seven-year plan” to establish a market garden and farm shop to benefit the local community, but accepted he had not provided competent care. He said his client had mental health and neurodiversity issues and had been dealing with the breakdown of a 28-year marriage and a family bereavement.
Judge Huw Rees said it was accepted that Erasmus had never intended to cause the animals to suffer, but that he had been “ill-equipped to provide the appropriate level of care,” with mental health difficulties at the time making him “inattentive” to the animals.
Erasmus, 66, of Arlan Gwili, Hendy, Pontarddulais, was made subject to an 18-month community order with a mental health treatment requirement, and must complete a rehabilitation course.
He was banned from keeping or caring for animals indefinitely, with an exception for his own dog and his elderly mother’s cat and chickens.
The judge told him he would be “a fool unto yourself” not to take advantage of the help offered through the community order, urging him to move on from his disputes with the council and focus on caring for his mother and his own health.
The court heard Erasmus has dropped an appeal against the seizure of the animals.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Senedd 2021: David Wayne Erasmus, Gwlad — Gower
Our profile of Erasmus when he stood for Gwlad in Gower at the 2021 Senedd election.
Pembrokeshire woman banned from keeping animals after dog found with shocking untreated facial wound
A labrador was left with a severe untreated injury RSPCA officers described as “shocking.”
Llanelli woman jailed after knife attack and strangling of friend
Another recent case heard at Swansea Crown Court.
