The RSPCA has seen a spike in cruelty to animals during the summer months - and the charity says it is preparing itself for a 'summer of suffering' in Wales.

The RSPCA receives around 90,000 calls to its cruelty line every month and investigates 6,000 reports of deliberate animal cruelty, including animal fighting and hunting.

But in the summer, calls rise to 134,000 a month - three every minute and reports of cruelty soar to 7,600 each month (245 every day). 

The charity has launched its Cancel Out Cruelty campaign to raise funds and awareness about how to stop cruelty to animals for good.

In Wales, across 2021 there were 692 reports of intentional harm against animals made to the RSPCA last year, including 19 in Pembrokeshire.

Dermot Murphy, chief inspectorate officer at the RSPCA, said: “We are a nation of animal lovers, and no one wants to think of an animal being cruelly treated, but sadly the reality is that every day animals are victims of deliberate cruelty and thankfully the RSPCA is there to help them.

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The RSPCA received 1,081,018 calls to its Cruelty Line in 2021 in England and Wales and these included reports of:

  • 1,094 killings or nearly three animals killed a day
  • 632 mutilations or 12 animals brutally mutilated every week
  • 7,857 beatings which equates to one animal beaten every hour
  • 38,087 abandonments which equates to more than 100 animals callously abandoned every day

Shocking from 2021 also included:

  • A ginger cat was shot in the Betws Ifan area, with his multiple injuries so severe that he had to be put to sleep
  • A herring gull shot in the Rhyl area. The bird had a badly injured and blood-splattered wing, and an X-ray at a local veterinary practice found three air gun pellets
  • Shock as five dead tortoises were found dumped at an allotment in Barry in “unexplained” circumstances
  • A cat shooting incident in Colwyn Bay where one-year-old grey cat, named Obi, was shot through his stomach with a pellet gun, and the bullet had gone onto snap the cat’s left back leg. Fortunately Obi recovered well following surgery
  • A cat was found with his leg “hanging off by its skin” after spending at least a week trapped in an illegal gin trap in Pembrokeshire