Calls for harsher animal cruelty sentences as 92% of convicted abusers avoid jail

The Government is being urged to increase the maximum prison sentence for animal cruelty, as new figures show more than 92% of those found guilty avoid time in jail.

Currently, the maximum custodial sentence handed down for animal cruelty in England and Wales is six months.

The Centre for Crime Prevention and animal charities such as the RSPCA and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home want it increased to five years, in line with Northern Ireland and other countries.

A new report by the Centre for Crime Prevention reveals that 12 in every 13 people convicted or cautioned for cruelty to animals since 2005 have avoided prison.

The number of suspended prison sentences, which means no actual time in jail, rose from 14% in 2005 to 66% last year.

Many found guilty are given suspended sentences, community service or fines.

The report also finds average fines for animal cruelty fell from £479 in 2005 to £296 in 2016.

Peter Cuthbertson, director of the Centre for Crime Prevention, told Sky News a review of sentencing is now needed.

He said: "It's been 10 years since the last time animal cruelty was looked at.

"It's now the right time to look at whether we have kept up with other countries, why is it Britain is so far behind?

"Northern Ireland has five years as the maximum sentence. That is about right.

"It maybe should be higher but it certainly shouldn't be six months."

Among the cases which resulted in a fine or suspended sentence were the starving of a dog to death; the filming of a bulldog being thrown down the stairs so many times it had to be put down; and the strangling of a cat before it was thrown in the bin.

Caroline Allen, veterinary director at the RSPCA's Harmsworth Animal Hospital in north London, says some of the cases she sees are horrific.

"We've seen a dog that's been attacked by someone using a machete," she explained.

"We had a pregnant Staffordshire bull terrier that was stabbed in the abdomen; fortunately the puppies were saved.

"Collars that have grown in and caused horrendous wounds, cats thrown out of windows resulting in broken legs."

David Bowles, head of public affairs at the RSPCA, called on the Government to bring laws on animal cruelty into line with other countries.

He said: "We see lots of horrific things during our day-to-day work and it gets frustrating when that goes to court and the judge says he'd like to give a stronger sentence but 'I can't because I'm limited by the laws'."

Laws surrounding animal rights legislation are overseen by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, which said it is reviewing the issue of increasing penalties in the most severe cases.