Two Spanish farm workers have avoided jail despite shocking video emerging of them torturing pregnant pigs and ripping piglets from their wombs.

The pair, named locally as Antonio Jimenez Hernandez and Juan Ricardo Rodas, were told their sentence for animal cruelty was being suspended because they didn't have any previous convictions, a court in Cartegana heard.

The men were also given a three year ban from working with animals and were also told they would have to take an animal welfare course.

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Farm workers are set to go on trial in Spain after shocking footage emerged of them torturing pregnant pigs

One man was captured on camera repeatedly stabbing one of the farm animals in the side with a metal sword

The trial came after barbaric footage emerged showing the men laughing as they tortured pregnant pigs and hit the animals over the head with iron bars before digging dirty metal swords into their sides repeatedly before ripping piglets from their wombs.

One of the men plays up to the camera as a pig writhes squealing and dying in front of them after he stabs it repeatedly along with a colleague.

He flexes his biceps as he stands over the animal after killing it in the most savage way possible while a colleague jokes out loud: 'Rest in peace.'

The piglets inside the sows were pulled out of their mothers' stomachs alive after they were slaughtered.

The shocking images were filmed at El Escobar farm in Fuente Alamo, Murcia, south east Spain and published by a worker shocked by what he saw.

They led to the arrests of the four men who went on trial today. However, only two turned up at the court with one believed to be on the run.

And speaking after the verdict, prosecutors from animal welfare organisation Animal Equality said they would appeal to try to ensure the men did prison time.

The shocking images were filmed at El Escobar farm in Fuente Alamo, Murcia, south east Spain and published by a worker shocked by what he saw

One worker flexes his biceps as he stands over the animal after killing it in the most savage way possible while a colleague jokes out loud: 'Rest in peace'

Its international Director Javier Moreno said: 'Plunging an 80 centimetre sword 50 times into a pig cannot go unpunished.'

While Miguel Rodriguez, a veterinary hospital anaesthetist, has described the footage as the worst he has ever seen.

He said: 'It's the most horrible case of animal mistreatment I've seen in my career.

'The suffering these animals have endured is comparable to the pain we'd suffer as humans in that situation.'

While Javier Moreno, international director of animal welfare organisation Animal Equality, which is also prosecuting the defendants as well as the Spanish state, added: 'This is without doubt the cruelest thing we've ever seen.

'We want a historic and exemplary sentence.'

The organisation has launched a petition which has already been signed by more than 66,000 people calling for a change in the law to stiffen the penalties for animal mistreatment.

State prosecutors are calling for a one-year prison sentence for each of the accused men - the maximum under Spanish law - as well as a three year ban from working with animals

The farm owner expressed his shock and condemnation after the footage was made public and said he had idea his animals were being mistreated in this way

The footage first emerged in February 2012 when Animal Equality was sent the six minute video.

Marcos Verduga, the worker who leaked the video, said at the time: 'From the minute I set foot on the farm I saw the animals were being mistreated every day.'

Police arrested the suspects 48 hours afterwards, leading to a criminal probe led by a judge and today's trial in the city of Cartagena.