The starving animals that were discovered in an atrocious state in a raid on a farm earlier this week will not be put down as they were found not to carry any diseases.

On Tuesday, Animal Welfare Department officials raided a dilapidated farm outside Siġġiewi, run by Daniel Farrugia, occupied by 50 cows, goats and sheep living in squalor and left starving. The department will be charging the farmer on at least six accounts of animal mistreatment.

An official had told The Times that the animals would probably have to be put down and incinerated on the spot within two days.

Yesterday, however, a Rural Affairs Ministry spokesman said the animals would not be put down since they were not sick despite having been neglected and underfed.

“These animals have been tested by the department for the usual diseases on a regular basis and have had good results as from 2002 to date,” the spokesman said.

Half the livestock were cows and most of them were pregnant.

The farm, perched atop a hill outside Siġġiewi, was once a dairy farm but the conditions were not up to standard.

Mr Farrugia said he could not afford the €140,000 needed to carry out the alterations to reach acceptable standards for the production of milk for human consumption.

On Tuesday, the animals were left at the farm because the department does not have the capacity to confiscate so many animals and because they were suspected to have been sick.

But now, the animals are being transferred to another farm where they will be cared for and fed. They will start producing milk in a few months’ time after they give birth, and the feeding will improve their condition, a department spokesman said.