Two men were today jailed for their part in a ''squalid and cruel'' goat-slaughtering operation.

Michael Hawkswell, 26, received a four-month prison sentence for his part in the botched operation, while Isap Lakha, 67, was jailed for two months at Harrogate Magistrates Court today.

The pair were caught on a secretly filmed video killing 10 goats in a barn at Londonderry, North Yorkshire, in January last year.

The animals were being killed in the halal Muslim way but the premises were unlicensed and the method was ''inept, clumsy and cruel and caused considerable pain and suffering''.

Lakha made the initial cuts with a blunt knife but a finger injury prevented him from severing the arteries properly. Hawkswell, who slaughtered animals during the foot-and-mouth crisis, was meant to prepare the carcasses after slaughter.

Today, district judge Roy Anderson said the offences were so serious he had no option but to jail the men.

He said: ''The public are entitled to and expect animal welfare legislation to be rigorously enforced and those who breach the regulations to receive appropriate sentences.''

He told the pair the botched operation was ''squalid and cruel'', adding: ''The degree of distress inflicted on these animals was considerable. These offences are so serious only a custodial sentence can be passed in each case.''

Lakha, of Saville Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to cruelly ill-treating 10 goats and slaughtering the animals without a licence.

Hawkswell admitted allowing goats he owned to be cruelly ill-treated and also allowing premises to be used as a slaughterhouse without a licence.

The court was told Hawkswell had three previous convictions for cruelty to animals. Both men were banned from keeping animals for 10 years.

Musa Patel, for Lakha, said his client's only intention was to buy the goats and slaughter them under the strict Islamic regulations.

Simon Crossfield, for Hawkswell, said his client accepted he was ''idiotic'' and was ashamed of his actions.

At an earlier hearing, the court heard how Martin Coutts, from the Hillside Animal Sanctuary in East Anglia, began investigating the men after a tip-off.

Undercover investigator Graham Hall was brought in to make a video and the tape was passed to the RSPCA.

The hearing was also told how Lakha bought the animal carcasses for about £200 after the slaughter but insisted they were not for commercial sale.

He said the meat was to help feed his large extended family which included about 150 people. .