RSPCA received 1,819 reports of deliberate cruelty to animals in Lincolnshire in five years

The charity has released the figures as part of its Cancel Out Cruelty campaign to help raise funds to keep its rescue teams out on the frontline saving animals in desperate need of help and to raise awareness about how we can all help stamp out cruelty for good.

The RSPCA gets around 84,000 calls to its cruelty line every month and around 1,500 of those are about intentional cruelty.

But the charity sees a rise in the summer by around 400 calls, on average, per month, which equates to 47 calls every day or two every hour.

Dermot Murphy, head of RSPCA animal rescue teams, said: “Police forces reported a rise in domestic violence last year during lockdown and we are concerned that similar pressures which led to this rise may also have impacted on more cruelty to animals behind closed doors during the pandemic.

“The past year has seen a reportedly huge rise in pet ownership* and we know most people would not dream of harming an animal.

"However, we are concerned that, as we come out of lockdown and people return to their jobs outside the home or suffer financial pressures, we will see more animals suffer if their owners find themselves unable to cope.

“We are urging people in Lincolnshire to support our campaign to Cancel Out Cruelty so we can all work together to end cruelty towards animals.”

To donate to the Cancel Out Cruelty campaign and help continue to rescue animals in need, visit www.rspca.org.uk/stopcruelty.