Calls for councillor to resign after animal welfare offences

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

A town council has called on a councillor convicted of animal welfare offences to resign, while another has passed a vote of no confidence in him.

Cllr Wayne Erasmus, 66, is a member of Cwmaman and Ammanford town councils in Carmarthenshire, as well as two community councils in neighbouring Swansea.

He was sentenced in court in June having pleaded guilty to three animal welfare offences after pigs and goats in his care were found in “appalling” conditions.

Cwmaman town councillors agreed at a meeting in late June that the mayor should write to Cllr Erasmus asking him to consider his position, and the letter has been sent.

Councillors also recorded a vote of no confidence in him due to the conviction.

Councillors were advised that any standards or code of conduct complaint would need to be considered through the appropriate external avenues.

Ammanford Town Council has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that its mayor has written to Cllr Erasmus asking him to resign.

In June this year Swansea Crown Court heard how goats owned by the 66-year-old were kept in old windowless shipping containers awash with liquid faeces, urine and rotting food, and that pigs were in an “extremely poor shelter” and “contaminated with mud and faeces”. It followed a visit by council officers to a field in Pontarddulais, Swansea, in late 2023.

Prosecutor Lee Reynolds said a follow-up visit took place in early 2024 and that goats were cowering in a container whose floor was “sodden with faeces and urine”.

The pig accommodation was said to be “just mud” with only “filthy water” to drink. The animals were seized, and several of the rescued pigs died later.

Further visits were carried out following concerns about the arrival of a new container, and goats were found in “simply appalling conditions”.

Cllr Erasmus, of Arlan Gwili, Hendy, entered his three guilty pleas on the basis he had not intended to cause suffering to the animals.

In mitigation Matt Murphy said it was accepted that his client had not provided competent care to the animals, and that he’d intended to eventually establish a market garden on the land he leased.

The barrister said the defendant had mental health and neurodiversity issues and had been dealing with the emotional and financial impacts of a breakdown of a 28-year marriage as well as a tragic family bereavement.

Cllr Erasmus was banned from keeping or having the care of animals indefinitely, save for the dog he currently has and his mother’s cat and chickens, and made subject to an 18-month community order.

Carmarthenshire Council’s standards committee is looking into a referral regarding Cllr Erasmus from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

In a statement the county council said: “The standards committee undertook an initial consideration of the case on June 2, 2026, and concluded there was sufficient evidence to warrant the matter proceeding to a final hearing. No date has yet been set for that hearing.”

The LDRS has contacted Cllr Erasmus for a response.

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