West Yorkshire Second Highest Region for Animal Cruelty

West Yorkshire has the highest number of animal cruelty complaints being investigated by the RSPCA outside of Greater London.

High up on the list with West Yorkshire are also Manchester, Lancashire and South Yorkshire.

8,440 incidents were investigated here last year, and included finding dead and dying pigs, rabbits and chickens on a Leeds allotment.

Despite the number of investigations, conviction rates are still low. Just 93 people were convicted in 2014, less than the year before when only 126 people were found guilty of cruelty.

Rachel Oprysk, RSPCA Inspector for West Yorkshire, says that some pets are being used as leverage in domestic abuse cases and highlight a social problem: “There is a direct link between domestic abuse, child abuse and animal abuse.

“They can be used in things like domestic violence or they can be used as a tool against the person being abused. The perpetrator can say 'well okay if you don’t do this or don’t let me do that, then I’ll hurt your dog'. We have seen this and it’s quite sad.

“The RSPCA as an organisation do work with organisations such as the social services and police.”

RSPCA annual figures show a rise for the second year running, and Rachel explained who she comes in to contact with:

“The majority of the people I deal with are probably the lesser educated people in the deprived areas but you do get cases where you’ve got people that have high ranking jobs, are respected in the community and you think it’s those people that, actually, you should know better.”

The vast majority of RSPCA work is improving animal welfare by giving advice to owners. The number of owners who were offered and accepted welfare advice increased from 76,810 in 2013 to 82,746 in 2014.