Owners of the now defunct Wally’s Piggery at Murrumbateman plan to fight all charges of animal cruelty related to a raid last year.
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Valent (Wally) Perenc, 64, Stephanie Perenc, 58, and their financial backer WSL Investments Pty Ltd, have entered pleas of not guilty to a total of 53 charges of aggravated animal cruelty, failing to provide veterinary treatment or failing to comply with industry regulations.
The couple did not appear in Yass Local Court today but were represented through Canberra lawyer Richard Thomas.
The charges relate to a raid on the Murrumbateman property in August 2012 by Yass police, the NSW Food Authority, RSPCA and the Department of Primary Industries.
The joint investigation was sparked when graphic online footage allegedly showed piggery workers kicking and tossing piglets and beating sows, buckets of dead piglets and sows with open untreated sores.
Animal welfare activists Animal Liberation NSW said they had secretly filmed the footage over three months last year before publishing it online and contacting authorities.
Wally's Piggery and a connected business, Tennessee Piggery, near Young, closed earlier this year amid public furore over the footage.
The couple will appear before court for a hearing on December 3.
