Sussex Animal Cruelty Reports Reach 2,613 In Five Years

As the summer brings an expected rise in animal cruelty reports, the RSPCA said on Monday (July 5) that a total of 2,613 such notifications had come from Sussex alone across the last five years.

Its staff said the figure was made up from 1,118 reports in West Sussex, and 1,495 in East Sussex.

It has now launched a new campaign, 'Cancel Out Cruelty’ to combat a seemingly unending and saddening total.

The intention of the campaign, the charity said, is to raise funds to keep its rescue teams at work, saving animals in need of help.

It is also aiming to raise awareness about steps members of the public can take to reduce incidents of cruelty to animals.

This month, July, the RSPCA claimed, is a particularly busy month for investigating cruelty.

Officials claimed that at this time last year, they dealt with a 'spike' in intentional cruelty as 1,532 incidents were called through to their emergency helpline and the charity is expecting a similar spike this July.

Crimes carried out against animals, staff said, included beatings, knife crime, drowning and intentional killing.

Dermot Murphy, head of RSPCA animal rescue teams, said:

“We always sadly see a rise in cruelty during the summer months.

"As well as more people being out and about in the longer sunny days, seeing and reporting abuse, we feel there are a number of factors which contribute to this rise.

“Unfortunately, the hot summer days can lead to more people drinking alcohol in the sun which can be a factor in causing violence.

"There could also be boredom during the long holidays and more pressures at home - when the whole family is on holiday from school and work, existing difficulties in the home can be magnified.

"During these hot months, calls to our cruelty line rise, putting more pressure on our already stretched frontline rescue teams.

“Police forces reported a rise in domestic violence last year during lockdown and we are concerned that similar pressures which led to this rise may also have impacted on more cruelty to animals behind closed doors during the pandemic.

“The past year has seen a reportedly huge rise in pet ownership and we know most people would not dream of harming an animal.

"However, we are concerned that, as we come out of lockdown and people return to their jobs outside the home or suffer financial pressures, we will see more animals suffer if their owners find themselves unable to cope. 

“We urge anyone who wants to report animal cruelty to us to call our hotline on 0300 1234 999.”

The RSPCA says, in numbers:

• In 2020 it received 354,784 calls to its cruelty hotline during the summer months (June- August) about all kinds of cruelty and neglect
• In 2020 it received 4,339 reports about intentional cruelty during the summer months (June-August) - around 47 a day or 2 an hour
• July is the busiest month for investigating complaints - last year the RSPCA received 34,550 calls throughout the month. The average number of calls per month last year was 25,072
• In 2020 it received 8,214 calls about someone beating an animal - that’s 22 a day - almost one an hour
• It also received 1,496 calls about improper killing in 2020 - an increase from 964 in 2019
• This is an increase from 2019 when it received 5,757 calls about someone beating an animal
• The RSPCA has had almost 100,000 reports of intentional harm to animals over the last five years
• Every day the RSPCA has six reports of people killing or attempting to kill animals.