Richard Smith, 48, of Lemonfield, Crecora pleaded guilty to three charges relating to the discovery of a number of dead calves and two malnourished cattle on his farm last March.

An inspector with the Limerick Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Noel Shinners, told the court he called to the farm on March 15, 2007 after he received an anonymous phone call from a member of the public who claimed that a cow had been dragged with a rope to an outlying area of the farm a week earlier.

Mr Shinners said that when he arrived at the farm accompanied by members of the gardai, he located the cow which still had the rope tied around it. He told the court the "whole of its back was rotting."
Garda David Godfrey, Roxboro, said he believed the rope had been tied around the hind legs of the cow before it was dragged to the area where it was found.

The court heard that another cow, which was found in the yard of the farm, was "very very thin and malnourished." The two cows were still alive on the day in question but they were shot by Mr Smith's own vet who was contacted by gardai. The decaying carcasses of five dead calves were also found at a number of locations on the farm on the same date.

A veterinary inspector with the department of Agriculture, May Humphries, said she had been closely monitoring the farm since last March. She stated that a total of 15 dead animals had been removed from the farm since and she said she believed Mr smith could not cope with the demands of running a dairy herd. "Although things have improved (since last March] I have reservations about his management of cows. He is a lone operator and he is poorly equipped to manage a dairy herd," she said.

Solicitor John Herbert, for Mr Smith, described the conditions on the farm last March as "appalling" and said there was no defending it. "It is a family farm and he lives alone there and he grew up on a dairy farm and he has a historical attachment to it," he said, adding: "he is slowly beginning to accept that he cannot continue with the farming enterprise."

Judge O'Donnell was told that Mr Smith, who runs a successful business away from farming, had since carried out development works at the farm and that there was a vast improvement compared to March of last year. "He is doing all in his power to avoid a recurrance of what happen in March 2008," said Mr Herbert.

In imposing sentence on Mr Smith, Judge O'Donnell said: "there is clear evidence from the photographs I have been shown that these animals were the subject of abject and awful conditions."

The judge added that aspects of the case were "utterly awful" and he said: "it is manifestly clear that the pain and suffering in this case was as a result of the deliberate and appalling conduct of the defendant."

He imposed a four month jail sentence on Mr Smith, which is take effect from February 18. He also imposed fines totalling €2,500 and he ordered him to pay €1,000 towards the costs of the LSPCA.

Judge O'Donnell added: "I think these animals should be taken from the farm as soon as is possible and arrangements should be made to care for them somewhere else."

Mr Smith was granted leave to appeal the severity of the sentence imposed on him.