A HAMPSHIRE pig farmer has been told he will avoid a prison term after being found guilty of not caring for his animals.

Albert Pointer, 50, denied two charges of cruelty to his pigs and five charges of inappropriate care.

Pointer, of Fairfield Avenue, Fareham, was found guilty by Fareham magistrates of one charge of cruelty and four of inappropriate care.

He is due to be sentenced at Fareham Magistrates Court on Thursday and was told by magistrates chairman Mr H Straker that the court would be considering a community penalty, rather than prison.

The maximum penalty for cruelty, under the Protection of Cruelty to Animals Act, is six months' prison, and for inappropriate conditions under the Agriculture Act it is three months' prison.

Pointer was convicted of keeping his 33 pigs in conditions that caused suffering to pigs.

The prosecution was brought by Hampshire County Council's trading standards department, representatives of which visited Pointer's two pig sties at the Gillies in Fareham and Shedfield.

Ministry of Agriculture Vet Emma Dow and county council animal welfare officer David Anderson found pigs sleeping on top of each other to keep warm in the absence of dry straw and an underweight sow with abcesses.

They also saw pigs swimming in slurry up to one foot deep from their own waste, pigs lying in semi-frozen muddy water, rat holes and found one sty with a permanently leaking roof.

Pointer said he cared for his pigs as much as he cared for his pet dogs. He said he fed, watered and mucked out the sties regularly. When the inspections were made he had problems with transport to look after his herds.