Farmer admits animal cruelty charge

A North Cork farmer pleaded guilty today to charges including cruelty to animals after an inspection of his farm found 47 dead cattle and many more live and malnourished cows standing among the carcasses.

"I got a stench, a strange odour, and I went to the farmyard. I met the farmer, Finbarr O’Reilly, and asked him could he smell anything and he said, "no". I asked him were there any dead animals on the farm and he said, "one or two"," Garda John O’Neill of Rathduff Garda Station said at Cork District Court today.