A Hunningham farmer who caused unnecessary suffering to a ewe that had to be euthanised has been handed a suspended prison sentence and been banned from keeping animals.

Ewan David Wells, 64, of Main St. Hunningham, Leamington Spa pleaded guilty to three Animal Health offences in December 2022, before being given the 16 week sentence (which is suspended for a year) at Coventry Magistrates Court on Thursday, 29 June.

Wells - who had previously been found guilty in 2020 for causing unnecessary suffering to a cow - was also found to have failed to take steps to make sure the needs of all his animals were met.

The court heard there was a heavy accumulation of muck on his farm, three feet deep in some areas, which would make it difficult for animals to walk.

In some places muck had reached the same height of the rims of water troughs leading to constant contamination of the water.

Old, rotten hay and silage had been left at the bottom of a feed ring from which animals were seen eating and in some areas silage and fodder beets were fed from the floor where they were contaminated with faeces.

A shed containing around 200 ewes and some new born lambs did not have enough water buckets.

Cattle buildings were in poor repair and cattle had access to areas of the farm that had barbed wire on the floor and piles of scrap metal.

Wells had already been proecuted in 2020 for causing suffering to a cow (image via Warwickshire County Council)

Wells' farm was inspected after his 2020 prosecution. When problems were found, the tenant farmer was given an opportunity to put things right but failed to do so.

The latest offences, which took place over two years before March 2022, were discovered by visits by trading standards officers and APHA veterinary inspectors.

Warwickshire County Councillor Andy Crump, portfolio holder for community safety said: "Warwickshire has a large farming community and our trading standards animal health team work with them to ensure that livestock are healthy and cared for and the risk of disease is reduced as much as possible.

"When problems are found, the advice of animal health officers and vets is usually heeded and issues are rectified quickly, but unfortunately in this case, despite Mr Wells having received considerable guidance, he failed to follow it, leaving us with little option but to take court action."

Mr Stephen Cadwaladr, representing Wells stated that his client had operated a small farm for all of his working life and was not a wealthy man.

Wells farmed alone, days on the farm were long and the work arduous and he had reluctantly accepted that he could no longer perform physical tasks as well as he once could.

Further, he maintained that Wells' failure to meet best practice was for these and associated reasons as opposed to intention or idleness.

Wells has now been disqualified from:

1. Owning animals of all kinds except domestic dogs or cats;
2. Keeping animals of all kinds except domestic dogs or cats;
3. Participating in the keeping of animals of all kinds except domestic dogs or cats;
4. Being party to an arrangement under which he is entitled to control or influence the way in which animals of all kinds are kept except domestic dogs or cats.

He was also, given a 15 day rehabilitation requirement and ordered to pay £6,000 towards prosecution costs and a £122 victim surcharge.

He is not prevented from working with animals in the employment of another.

The disqualification order is suspended for a period of five weeks, until 3 August 2023, in order to allow Wells to make alternative arrangements for the animals on his farm.

Wells may not seek to apply to terminate the disqualification order until 28 June 2028.