Dozens of pigs were slaughtered at land used by banned farmer Lance Beale on Monday and Tuesday.

The slaughter happened six weeks after police and animal welfare officials swooped on Wyatts Lake Farm at Westbrook, near Bromham, after a small number of pig carcasses were found and concerns were raised about the well being of a number of live pigs.

Wiltshire County Council trading standards department, which is investigating Mr Beale following the swoop on the farm on January 23, said no offences were committed when the pigs were slaughtered this week.

Animal health officers from the county council, a vet from Defra and a police officer were present when Mr Beale began shooting pigs at the farm on Monday.

However Mr Beale became upset and Jonathon Seed, of Chittoe Heath, who had lent Mr Beale his shotgun, was called by trading standards to help and he shot about a dozen pigs.

Mr Beale said: “There was nothing wrong with the pigs at all, they were healthy. There was a declaration by the veterinary medical directorate, part of Defra, that made it impractical for the people in charge of the livestock to keep them. It’s all a hell of a mess and I think it’s terribly, terribly unfair.”

John Devlin, area manager for Wiltshire trading standards, said Mr Beale contacted his animal health officers to say he would be slaughtering the pigs on Monday.

Mr Devlin said: “The pigs were poor but didn’t require destruction on welfare grounds, rather it was Mr Beale who decided to put them down as they were valueless and he was running out of food to feed them.”

He said he understood that 26 pigs were put down on Monday and about 50 were destroyed on Tuesday morning by Mr Beale.

Mr Seed, who is joint master of the Avon Vale Hunt and Kennet district councillor for Urchfont, described the pigs at Wyatts Lake Farm as “emaciated”.

He said he shot about a dozen pigs and was not paid to do it.

He said: “I have been trained in the humane destruction of animals and I was asked by the animal welfare authorities and the police at the scene to complete the task.”

Following the swoop at the farm in January Mr Beale said the pigs were looked after by a company called WLF (1981) Ltd and he had no input into the welfare of the animals. Mr Beale was listed as the director and company secretary of WLF but four days after the swoop the company was dissolved.

Mr Devlin said trading standards was trying to establish who was responsible for the pigs now that WLF was dissolved.