September 2024
Animal Cruelty
Animal cruelty is on the rise with the RSPCA reporting that one dog is abused every hour. Animal cruelty is a serious offence and for the first time, a new revised ‘Animal Cruelty’ guideline gives judges and magistrates in England and Wales guidance for sentencing the most serious animal cruelty offences, including causing unnecessary suffering, tail docking and animal fighting. The maximum penalty for these offences has increased from 6 months to 5 years in prison. There have been calls for tougher sentencing for animal related offences and these new sentencing guidelines are much welcomed. Nevertheless, big and bold changes to the legal system are still desperately needed to fight against animal cruelty.
Violence
It is a well-known fact that animal cruelty and domestic violence are strongly linked and animal cruelty in childhood can lead to violence in later life. Studies have shown that in a sample of a large number of inmates who are violent offenders, a high number of males have a history of engaging in some form of animal cruelty, abuse or killing in dogs and cats. An increase in sentencing will give better protection for animals and act as a deterrent for animal abusers.
Disqualification
Magistrates are mostly in charge of the sentencing of individuals but there is lack of custodial sentences granted, despite the new law. Sentencing powers available to the courts are unbalanced and need reforming. For example, when someone is sentenced with no previous convictions, or there is a guilty plea, the sentence is automatically reduced with either a fine and/or community service if they are lucky.
So what happens when an individual is disqualified from keeping animals then caught out again? Firstly, these people are not monitored and continue to own and abuse animals despite their disqualification, until a member of the public goes on to report them. Therefore, they fall under the radar. Secondly, when a person reoffends, it could be that upon further investigation, the reoffender’s partner could say that they are the owner of the animal – even when living under the same roof leading to no breach of the disqualification order!
Prison for Puppy Farmers
Where’s mum? A mixed litter of terrified puppies for sale
Puppy farmers from Northern Ireland were jailed for 9 months each in November 2023 for animal neglect. They were found to be selling numerous poorly dogs raised in disgusting conditions from rented properties and anywhere they could sell quickly in the UK. Some either died or had to be put to sleep to prevent further suffering. One of these individuals even had a previous 10-year ban in 2020 for the exact offence! They acted purely for financial gain with disregard for animal welfare. Sadly, all too often we read other heart-breaking stories like this.
The RSPCA
The Royal Society for the Prevention of cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is the oldest and largest animal welfare charity in the world and the UK is celebrating 200 years of its ongoing fight for improvements to animal welfare. They take on average 2,679 calls every day reporting animal abuse, neglect and welfare concerns.
The RSPCA follow up on every case of animal cruelty reported to them by members of the public. Unfortunately due to lack of evidence, or because witnesses do not want to make statements, these cases do not progress any further. However, many high profile cases do progress and lead to prosecutions and in some cases prison sentences. The RSPCA have no enforcement powers so they work with the police to execute a warrant to gain entry into a property if permission is refused.
The RSPCA face daily struggles as resources are massively stretched. There are limited numbers of officers on the front line dealing with an ever-increasing number of reports of cruelty. We can only imagine how soul destroying it must be for these officers to witness such cruelty. Then they spend months and months (sometimes years) on a case gathering information with the police to eventually reach a prosecution, only to learn of a paltry sentence or fine. To put it in perspective, of 1,626 cases of animal cruelty reported in 2018, more than half led to a prosecution but only a fraction of these (65) led to a prison sentence. We truly hope that is about to change now.
Did you know that there are over 100 puppy farms in Ireland where tens of thousands of dogs are used, abused, bred from, sold and killed every year? All run on a factory scale, most are illegal; many are unlicensed and a great deal are sick or dying - all ready to be brought to the UK to be sold online.
http://www.northumbriajournals.co.uk/index.php/sjppar/article/download/1114/1473/3479