Animal beating reported ‘once every 15 minutes’ – RSPCA

Reported animal beating incidents in England and Wales have doubled in four years, with one attack now being reported every 15 minutes, according to new RSPCA data.

The charity believes the rise may be partially influenced by the availability of footage from platforms including doorbell cameras and smartphones.

But the figures, released on 20 August as part of its Summer Cruelty campaign, have also been described as “really distressing and stark” by RSPCA officials, who appealed for public help to rescue abuse victims.

‘Bigger scale’

Ian Briggs, who heads the charity’s special operations unit, said: “What is clear is that animals are suffering at the hands of people on a much bigger scale than many people realise.”

A total of 3,304 animal beating incidents were reported to the RSPCA during July and August 2024.

The figure equates to four reported incidents every hour in that period and was up by 105% from the 1,613 recorded during the same period in 2020.

The charity has also estimated that overall incident levels are rising by around 10% a year and fear the total for this summer will be even higher still.

Rising trend

But while he stressed the reasons for the rising trend were not clear, Mr Briggs said new avenues had become available to them in the fight to catch abusers.

He said: “We’re finding that CCTV footage, doorbell cameras and smartphones are providing a view into society that we never had before, meaning that animal beatings are more likely to be caught on camera in supermarket car parks, on streets, in lifts and even behind closed doors in the home – giving us the evidence we need to be able to seek justice for animals.

“This could account for the rise that we are seeing as these awful abusers are more likely to be caught on camera, uploaded to social media or reported directly to us.”

The charity also reported receiving a total of 34,401 reports of cruelty during June, July and August last year, up a third on the previous year.