‘No limit to animal cruelty’ as Scottish SPCA cases soar

The Scottish SPCA’s Edinburgh and Lothians Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre at Balerno cared for 947 animals in 2011, new figures have revealed.

Nationally, Scotland’s animal welfare charity saw the number of animals in its care leap from 12,600 to 13,437, while calls to its helpline remained extremely high at 180,556 – some 500 a day.

The Scottish SPCA’s inspectors and animal rescue officers attended almost 1000 incidents every week.

Chief Superintendent Mike Flynn said: “While the majority of cases we investigate are the result of ignorance rather than outright cruelty, last year sadly demonstrated once again that there is no limit to how far some people will go to abuse animals.”

Scottish SPCA investigations last year resulted in 46 people being banned from keeping animals, 12 for life, which is seven more than the previous year.

Four people were jailed, compared to one in 2010, and fines that totalled more than £25,000 were handed out.