SO CRUEL: Man admits causing unnecessary suffering to pigs and chickens found in ‘appalling squalor’

Magistrates heard how Rory Warwick, 22, kept the livestock in an outbuilding at the end of a residential street.

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An animal welfare officer called to the smallholding  said he had found the pigs in a dark, damp and poorly ventilated building.

The 20 saddleback pigs were stood in ‘two inches’ of their own faeces, had little or no access to food and water and no bedding.

Chickens were also found in unsuitable boxes at the site without food and water.

An RSPCA report stated there were no perches available for the birds to escape from their own waste.

During a court appearance yesterday Warwick, of Rushton Street, Bacup, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to the animals after a prosecution was brought by the RSPCA.

In a statement provided to the court, RSPCA inspector Jason Bowles said he had been called to the smallholding in Collinge Fold Road, off Holland Avenue, Rawtenstall, on February 24 last year after neighbours reported a large bonfire on the land.

They were concerned that ‘toxic fumes’ were putting the animals at risk.

Inspector Bowles said on entering the unit where the pigs were held in two pens he saw a large amount of wet excrement covering the floor and the pigs had no way of being in a dry area.

He said: “The pigs were huddled together in a corner, lying in a pile on top of each other.

“There was no bedding and it was in almost darkness.

“There was no food available to the pigs on either side.

“The pigs in unit B did not move out of the corner at all even when I tried to attract their attention.

“But I could see them breathing and twitching occasionally.”

After taking pictures of the scene in the gloom, Insp Bowles said he was distressed when viewing the images later that day to see what ‘appeared to be a dead pig that had been in the area where all the pigs had been piled up trying to keep warm and dry’.

Insp Bowles returned to the smallholding the following day to find a pig carcass on a bonfire which matched the size of the dead one he had pictured earlier.

He also found five chickens in a box in a dark room without food or water.

He described their conditions as an ‘inexcusable breach of the Animal Welfare Act’.

Inspector Bowles, said: “There was no escape to a clean area for them.

“There was no food and no perches.

“These birds were unable to exhibit any normal behaviour inside due to the conditions.”

Due to the suspected breaches of animal welfare, the 20 pigs and seven chickens were taken from the premises to a place of safety later that day.

Speaking after the proceedings, Inspector Bowles, said: “The condition in which the pigs were being kept was simply unacceptable.

“A minimum requirement is that they need light, ventilation, somewhere dry to lie down and some form of bedding.

“None of that was evident for these unfortunate animals.”

The prosecution told the court that they would be applying for costs of £19,433 pertaining to the case and £400 vets’ costs from Warwick, who was described as having previous good character.

They will also be applying for an order preventing Warwick from rearing animals.

Blackburn magistrates’ adjourned his sentencing until Wednesday, February 4 pending probation reports.