A pig farmer, who admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a pig by failing to treat it after it was found eaten alive on his farm, has had his 18-month jail term reduced to 12 on appeal.

Animal cruelty on an industrial scale saw one of the biggest pigmeat producers in the country jailed for 18 months yesterday.

A financial hole of debt of over €22m, out of which one of the biggest pig farmers in the country would never escape, was presented by the defence as a background factor to the case which saw him jailed yesterday for 18 months for animal cruelty.

Defendant failed to treat or euthanise a pig after it was left in pen to be eaten alive