A pensioner who faces charges of inflicting cruelty on animals was remanded in custody for two days to allow her to "reflect on her situation" by a judge at Limerick District Court yesterday evening.
Judge Tom O'Donnell remanded the accused woman, Ms Marie O'Sullivan, from Clonlara, Co Clare, in custody until tomorrow after she told the court that she was unwilling to get rid of all the animals on her farm, but would be willing to get rid of some of them.
The judge said that the farm was not suitable for one animal. Remanding her in custody, he added: "It is an enormous step to take and I do so with a heavy heart."
The woman, who is in her seventies, was charged at an earlier court hearing with eight offences involving cruelty to animals on her farm.
The judge said that photographs which had been shown to him - of decomposing carcases, of starving, half-dead animals, and of animals eaten by other animals - were so bad that he had to turn them face-down after looking at them.
He had ordered Ms O'Sullivan to depopulate her farm by December 4th or face going to jail. "This is an absolute and utter disgrace, the level of cruelty visited on animals," he said.
A veterinary inspector with the Department of Agriculture, Ms Catherine McSweeney, told the earlier court hearing that, on a scale of one to 10, the cruelty she had witnessed was at 10.
Gardaí based at Ardnacrusha described the conditions they found when they visited the farm on dates between February and April this year. On one visit, a pack of dogs had been seen eating two emaciated live calves, which later had to be put down. Carcases of cattle were found strewn around the farm.
Dogs were found locked inside the main residence and in a shed with no bedding or food, and farm animals had no food or water. Although hay had been left out near a yard, it had been trampled into the ground.
The court heard that the farm was totally overpopulated with 130 cattle and that the defendant had been served with an order to depopulate her farm of all animals.
Ms O'Sullivan, who resides at the Clare Inn Hotel in Newmarket-on-Fergus, claimed that dogs had strayed on to her farm and said she had difficulty in getting carcases removed from it. She also claimed that there was hay and silage for feed. She denied that animals had been locked into a shed with no bedding, feed or water.
The case was adjourned until 10.30 a.m. tomorrow.