ANIMALS were kept in illegal pens, treading in their own dung and even on the rotting body of a pig.

Now one farmer is behind bars while another received a suspended sentence, and both were banned from keeping livestock.

Anthony Ward, 58, and Sarah Moore, 43, ran Oaklea Farm at Agars Lane in Sway in the New Forest.

Trading Standards officers and a Government vet made a snap inspection there in February 2010.

Winchester Crown Court, where Ward and Moore were sentenced on Wednesday, was shown the results.

A Trading Standards DVD featured several sick animals including a pig, a calf, and a goat with an infected hoof.

It also included footage inside a piggery with some sides built from old crates with nails sticking out.

Dozens of pigs were walking over their own faeces and inspectors found one that was dead mixed up in the dung.

They were also drinking dirtywater, which led to several charges being laid against Ward and Moore.

The former pleaded guilty to keeping animals in an unsuitable pen, along with mistreating the sick goat and pig.

Moore admitted the same offences along with mistreating the sick calf.

Nick Tucker, prosecuting, said Ward had a string of animal-related convictions going back to 1997.

They had led to fines of around £2,000 and temporary bans on keeping horses and cattle, he said.

John Reynolds, mitigating for Ward, said his client was struggling to make ends meet at Oaklea Farm.

He added: “Mr Ward is not an educated man and he cannot read and he cannot write.”

Mr Reynolds added that Ward was working part time for an undertaker and collecting bodies for coroners to pay the bills.

Charlie Gabb, mitigating for Moore, said the farm – which also has geese, ducks, racoons and even emus – was a “shambles” and “disaster”.

He said: “She was not deliberately cruel, just inadequate and incompetent, and was overwhelmed by the situation.”

He added that Ward and Moore were living in a caravan with no electricity.

Mr Recorder Michael Selfe told Ward: “Nothing has stopped you carrying on in this wholly inappropriate way and your inactions in the care and control of animals.”

He jailed Ward for eight months, and gave Moore, who had no animal-related convictions until three years ago, a six-month suspended sentence.

Both were banned from keeping animals, apart from their pet dogs, with no right of appeal for five years.

The judge ordered Moore to remove all livestock from Oaklea Farm within two months.