Attacks on animals 'increasing'

Cruelty to animals is increasing says USPCA

Northern Ireland's leading animal charity has said the number of deliberate acts of cruelty to animals is rising.

This follows the mutilation of a family's cat in north Belfast and the shooting of a cow.

The pet cat was cut into pieces and left outside its owner's home on Wednesday.

Police are investigating the shooting of a cow in a field on Thursday.

The chief executive of the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Stephen Philpott, said it was a depressing day for the way some animals were treated in Northern Ireland.

I don't care what age you are or how depraved you are, you really do know in this day and age that you shouldn't be cutting up cats

Stephen Philpott
USPCA

"Sadly and worryingly for us, the increase seems to be on deliberate cruelty," Mr Philpott said.

"For many years my job was mostly taken up with accidental cruelty, negligence, people just didn't know any better.

"I don't care what age you are or how depraved you are, you really do know in this day and age that you shouldn't be cutting up cats.

"You also know you shouldn't be beating lambs to death with iron bars, you shouldn't be shooting dogs with crossbows and, as of this morning, you shouldn't be shooting cows in fields with guns."

Mr Philpott said that if someone was prepared to do this to an animal, it would only be "a matter of time" before they would do something similar to a human being.

SDLP MLA for north Belfast Alban Maginness said: "It is mind boggling how anyone could do anything as repulsively cruel... for anybody to deliberately dismember a cat in this fashion.

"There is a terrible loss in human values, this is indicative of that."