A GWENT farmer was banned from keeping farm animals for three years after being found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to 27 pigs.

Christopher Barnfield, of Penallt, Llanelly Hill, Abergavenny, kept Tamworth and Saddleback pigs on the Varteg near Pontypool between October 2004 and January 2006.

He denied treating the pigs badly, but the bench at Abertillery magistrates court fined him £1,500 and ordered him to pay £4,000 costs.

Torfaen council officers and vets who visited the field in January 2006 said Barnfield had not provided enough food, housing or bedding and had failed to provide vet treatment for suspected sarcoptic mange.

Defence barrister Robert Wade called witness Roger Blowey, a specialist farmyard vet who said that the animals were not emaciated, because they could still react to their environment.

Barnfield said his four-by-four vehicle had broken down meaning he could not deliver straw bedding for two days in January.

He denied the pigs were malnourished, saying he had left 14 tonnes of potatoes on the field on December 20.

The council said these were blackened, rotten and contaminated with faeces.

Barnfield insisted the pigs were healthy, saying: "I treated them for lice and worms, there was no need to consult a vet. They were never short of food."

Chairman of the bench Malcom Evans said Barnfield failed in his duty of care by not providing proper food, bedding or veterinary treatment.

He also said the two tin arks and a container in the field were unsuitable accommodation and that Barnfield should have found another way of getting the animals their bedding.

After the hearing, Simon Swanton, environmental health officer for Torfaen council, who brought the case, said: "The animals were extremely thin and there had been very little feeding. The condition of their accomodation was extremely poor with the animals lying in their own faeces.

"Throughout their owner never accepted that the animals had been suffering. I think this is appalling.

"It was an evil way to treat animals. It is a case of pure neglect."