8 cases of animal cruelty every week in Mid-Ulster

by Gráinne Connolly

On average the council in Mid-Ulster deals with at least one animal cruelty complaint a day, having around 8 cases a week. 

More figures show that from April 2015 to October 2016, there were 578 complaints made which led to 658 inspections in the area. 

A shockingly low number of 9 improvement notices have been served since. 

The most frequent cases reported for the district have been attacks on Cats and dogs, which made up a third of the instances. They involved the use of pellet guns, crossbows and other weapons on the animals. 

Throughout Northern Ireland they've received a staggering 26, 444 animal welfare calls, carried out 34, 369 inspections and served 911 improvement notices- all within the past 4 years. 

There have also been prosecutions on 80 of the cases with a further number of cases that may result in prosecution. 

Back in August, the animal welfare introduced tougher sentencing for more serious cases in a bid to clamp down on cruelty to animals.