One of the country's biggest pig producers has been jailed for 18 months for what the judge in the case has called "cruelty on an industrial scale".
60 year old Rory O'Brien pleaded guilty to five charges relating to his treatment of his animals.
He was accused of failing to prevent the unnecessary suffering of 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 over the years but he had never encountered anything like this.
Dept of Agriculture vet John McConville catalogued the inventory of neglect and cruelty when he outlined the case to Judge O Donnabhain at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
He told 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 piggery which housed 20,000 animals.
