One of the country’s biggest pig producers has been jailed for 18 months for “cruelty on an industrial scale” where some of his pigs were cannibalised and eaten alive.

Rory O’Brien (60) pleaded guilty to five charges relating to his treatment of pigs, including that he failed to prevent unnecessary suffering to some animals which were eaten alive by others.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said it had been his misfortune to come across a number of animal welfare and cruelty cases, but he had never encountered anything like this.

“This is cruelty on an industrial scale by one of the biggest pig farmers in the country. On a continuous basis he knowingly and without regard (acted in this way),” said the judge.

Department of Agriculture vet John McConville catalogued the inventory of neglect and cruelty when he outlined the case at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

He told how how he and colleagues encountered horrific animal neglect and cruelty at O’Brien’s piggery at Killicane, Mitchelstown over the period May to September, 2011.

They had served two welfare notices on O’Brien following inspections in May 2011, but he failed to comply and the conditions of some animals deteriorated at the 20,000 animal piggery.

Mr McConville said the pigs had no fresh water supply in temperatures of 22 degrees and they were also left without food. He said stressed hungry pigs become very aggressive. This can result in some animals attacking and eating other pigs in their pen and he showed Judge O Donnabhain a photograph of one animal with half its side eaten.

The animal was still alive, but suffering cruelly said Mr McConville. He added there were also other animals that had been eaten by more aggressive animals in the rat-infested piggery.

The appropriate care involved separating out the injured animals from the other aggressive pigs for treatment and if treatment failed, the animal should be euthanised.

However, O’Brien failed to euthanise injured animals and they were left to suffer before dying with many dead carcasses left lying about the piggery rather than being properly disposed.

Other animals had joints that were inflamed and one animal had an abscess on its leg that was the size of a football. The animal was neither treated nor euthanised, he said.

O’Brien refused to co-operate and at one point became so threatening to Department of Agriculture vet Mary Cullinane during a visit that she feared for her safety and had to call the gardaí.

O’Brien wrote to the department on one occasion and told them his own vet had certified his stock as being healthy and told them he didn’t agree with their assessment.

This was at a time when pigs were being cannibalised at the piggery and when they later confronted O’Brien about it, he told he didn’t have to deal with it and just walked away.

At one stage when the pigs had no water and temperatures were hitting 22 degrees, they found a staff member watering a hedge at the O’Brien home nearby, said Mr McConville.

Cross-examined by O’Brien’s counsel, Ken Fogarty SC, Mr McConville said that he was aware that O’Brien was experiencing financial difficulty.

However he didn’t believe the problem stemmed from financial difficulties but from poor management as it would not have cost much to ensure the pigs had water or were euthanised.

“The pigs can’t be left to suffer just because he didn’t have the money ... Mr O’Brien had a choice every day (on how to treat the animals), the pigs had no choice,” said Mr McConville.

Mr Fogarty said it costs €40-€50 to dispose of a dead pig and Mr McConville agreed, but said one of the responsibilities of farming was to dispose of dead animals properly and safely.

He accepted that O’Brien was de-stocking at the time, but it did not excuse his failure to provide such basic requirements as proper water and feed for the pigs, he said.

Defence witness, accountant Edward Cahill said that he examined O’Brien’s books and it was fair to say that his financial situation was catastrophic with current debts of €22 million.

Judge O Donnabhain noted O’Brien had saved the State the cost and time of a lengthy and complex trial by his guilty plea and that was a mitigating factor in his favour.

However, both the scale and the duration of the neglect and cruelty was extraordinary as was O’Brien’s attitude towards the Dept of Agriculture when they sought to intervene.

“When first confronted by the Department he openly defied them. He wrote to them more or less looking for a gold medal for his treatment of pigs. What brazenness. I have no doubt this man was financially in a calamitous situation but that does not excuse or explain the level of what was going on here with these animals,”he said

“It is not individual cruelty, it is that it went on in the face of departmental involvement over a prolonged period that makes it so bad,” he said as he jailed hihim for 18 months.

Judge O Donnabhain said that he would have had no difficulty imposing the maximum three-year term provided for by the legislation if O’Brien had been convicted after a trial.

The legislation also provided for fines of up to €100,000 in addition to or in place of the jail term but he saw no point in imposing a fine given O’Brien’s financial position.