BBC Correspondent Tim Hirsch reports from New Forest Magistrate's court

The case against the Hampshire farm, where animal rights activists released 6,000 mink last year, is the first of its kind in Britain.

But all the charges against the farmer, Terence Smith, 73, whose farm trades under the name of TT Smith (Mink) Ltd, were dropped.

Terence Smith: All charges dropped

The evidence was gathered by an animal rights group who made a video of mink at Crowhill Farm near Ringwood. Respect for Animals said after sentencing it was disappointed that the magistrate at Lyndhurst, Hampshire, failed to disqualify the farm from keeping animals.

The RSPCA called for automatic disqualifications in animal cruelty cases.

The BBC's Chris West: The mink were in filthy and dilapidated surroundings

Spokeswoman Lucy Clark said: "We are obviously pleased that this man has been convicted of appalling acts of cruelty to mink but disappointed that he wasn't banned from keeping mink in the future."

Respect for Animals' evidence was passed to the Ministry of Agriculture and the RSPCA who made their own inspections.

They found that some of the mink were suffering some horrendous injuries - some had tails missing, one was found to have died of blood poisoning - yet none of the injured appeared to have been given any veterinary attention.

Maggots and faeces

Oba Nsugbe, prosecuting, said: "Some of the cages had faeces piled up underneath them. Some of the cages were missing nesting boxes and nipple feeders were broken.

Lucy Clark: "We are disappointed"

"Blocked drains were overflowing with maggots and faeces and on that occasion they did see a number of injured mink."

The court heard some of the animals were so badly hurt that bones were protruding from infected wounds, some of which were inflicted by other mink.

Some were in such a bad condition that they had to be put down.

'Chaos' after attack

The company's lawyers explained that there had been attacks on the farm by animal rights activists a few months before the inspection in which several cages were damaged and mink were released.

It was claimed that the chaos caused by that incident led to some of the mink being in such a bad condition.

The mink are normally separated from family groups - making it less likely that the mink would attack each other - but that order had been destroyed.

The UK Government is supporting a Bill currently before Parliament calling for an end to fur farming by 2001.

A Ministry of Agriculture spokesman said: "While fur farming is still going on the Ministry will enforce the highest possible welfare standards.

"We are pleased this prosecution has been successful and will not hesitate to take further action where there is any evidence of cruelty."