A MELKSHAM farmer will face trial next week on 21 charges of animal cruelty and farm mismanagement.
Lancelot Beale, of Wyatts Farm, Westbrook, near Bromham, is being prosecuted by Wiltshire Trading Standards for a string of cruelty charges.
Beale, who denied all the offences at an earlier court hearing, is charged with eight counts of causing unnecessary suffering to injured sheep and lambs on November 2000, seven counts of failing to get medical advice or treat emaciated or lame sheep in January this year and four counts of delaying the disposal of animal carcasses at his farm.
He is also charged with one count of failing to keep records of sheep movements between December 1999 and July 2001 and one count of failing to keep medical records of treatment given to sheep earmarked for human consumption.
Beale will appear at Kennet Magistrates Court in Devizes on Monday for trial. Proceedings are expected to last one week.
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