Animal cruelty – RSPCA craving resources

This week, Mandurah Mail journalist Justin Rake covered a story on a kangaroo being decapitated at Creery Wetlands Nature Reserve.

The public’s reaction to the story on social media mirrored my own - complete disbelief and utter disgust.

Just how and why someone would think killing and butchering an innocent animal was acceptable is baffling.

The photos of the incident were so gruesome we couldn’t print them, but for the RSPCA this is just another case of horrific crimes against animals.

Coincidentally, around the same time that Justin was penning his story, the animal welfare organisation released details of some of the unsolved cases they needed the public’s help to solve.

These incidents happened across the state and followed in the theme of the cruelty dished out to the kangaroo in Mandurah.

They included the harrowing tale of a dog’s skull being fractured at the hands of a human and the animal dying as a result of its injuries.

Another dog was set on fire and was later put down by the attending vet, such was the horrific nature of its condition.

Emus were run down by humans in four-wheel drives and a cat was impaled by an arrow.

While these incidents did not occur in our region, the case of the kangaroo shows animal cruelty is an issue on our doorstep, as well as across WA.

A breakdown of animal cruelty hotspots, collated by the RSPCA over time, shows that Mandurah has featured in the top ten worst-offending suburbs for the last three years consecutively.

The RSPCA do a wonderful job in tending to animals subjected to pain, suffering and neglect at the hands of humans – but they can only do so much.

The organisation are under-resourced and as such rely on local government rangers, the help of volunteers and contact from members of the public to fulfil their duties.

Moving forward, to stamp out animal cruelty, the issue needs to be front and centre when these horrendous incidents happen.

Organisations like RSPCA need more resources to employ extra officers and thus have a broader impact on the communities we live in.

And offenders that are caught and charged must have the book thrown at them from the authorities to eradicate this issue from our ‘civilised’ society.