A West Yorkshire mAN has been ordered to pay more than £5,000 for shooting a cow in the back of the head and removing a cow's spine away from a slaughterhouse.

Noel Mullin, 63, of Huck Hill Farm in the Marsden area of Huddersfield, was sentenced for three offences at Burnley Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The 63-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of carrying out an operation on an animal other than in a slaughterhouse without a licence registered with the competent authority and one count of shooting a bovine animal in the back of head at premises other than a slaughterhouse.

He had previously pleaded not guilty on September 10, 2020 but changed his plea on Wednesday.

The offences relate to September 16 in 2019, in Gisburn and at Huck Hill Farm.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Gisburn. Picture: Google MapsGisburn. Picture: Google Maps

Mullin shot a cow in the back of the head at the farm.

In Gisburn, he stunned a cow and also pithed a cow - the process of piercing or severing the spinal cord of an animal so as to kill or immobilise it.

Both actions were undertaken away from a slaughterhouse and without a licence registered with the competent authority.

Mullin has been ordered to pay the courts £5,781.57 in total.

This includes a £250 fine for each of the offences and a £75 surcharge to fund victim services and £4,956.57 in costs for one of the counts of carrying out an operation on an animal other than in a slaughterhouse without a licence registered with the competent authority.