Dog forced to eat dead pals among UK cruelty cases

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) A starving dog forced to eat its dead companions and a horse with hooves three-and-a-half foot long were among a rising number of abuse cases investigated by the RSPCA, the animal charity said today.

The RSPCA said its figures for 2006 showed there had been a ''shocking catalogue of crimes against animals'' but said the new animal rights law was helping to cut the overall number of animals that suffered.

Pet owners became legally liable for the welfare of their animals for the first time under stringent new anti-cruelty laws that came into force this Spring.

''Many front line inspectors are reporting that people are responding well to the new law, and increasingly we are able to prevent animal suffering before it begins,'' said Jackie Ballard, the RSPC's director general.

Offences against cats and dogs were down by 9.5 and 15.6 percent respectively, although there was a rise in cruelty cases against horses and ponies.

The annual statistics showed there had been an 10.5 percent increase in the number of cruelty investigations, a 7.6 percent rise in the number of animals rescued or collected, and a 9 percent rise in court orders banning offenders keeping pets.

Among the worse cases investigated by the RSCPA was that of a dog found abandoned in a house in Peckham, south London.

Inspectors believe the surviving black and tan terrier crossbreed they found had only survived by eating her two dead companions.

In another case, inspectors found a three-year-old dog starved to death in a house in east London while 1,000 hens were rescued from a maggot-filled pit in a farm in Essex after escaping from battery cages.

Some of the hens could barely walk because they had hardened lumps of excrement the size of tennis balls encrusted around their feet, the RSPCA said.

''Neglect has always been the most common form of cruelty,'' Ballard said.

''But these cases defy belief. It's just so shocking to discover pet food in homes where animals literally starved to death waiting for their owners to open a packet or a tin.'' Reuters SAM VP0715