THE Glenelg Shire area is falling behind in the state on animal welfare with no improvement over the last two years.
Although just 48 animal cruelty reports were made in the area according to data from the RSPCA – two more than last year and enough for the top 20 best local government areas on numbers alone – the per capita figure of one report per 420 people ranks much poorer against the rest of the state.
Glenelg Shire ranked at 38 out of 79 on a per capita basis but is now just one rank shy of the 30 poorest areas for animal welfare.
Among the local government areas it has overtaken are East Gippsland, Greater Bendigo, and Ararat.
Other south-west areas have also had little improvement over the past two years.
West Wimmera Shire’s numbers rose from 12 reports in 2019-20 to 17 in 2021-22, Moyne’s were slightly down from 60 to 58 and Southern Grampians remained at 35 in both years.
Moyne Shire went from 60 reports in 2019-20 to 58 in 2021-22, West Wimmera from 12 to 17 and Southern Grampians at 35 in both years.
They rank 5th, 13th and 38th on a per capita basis respectively.
The areas with the highest numbers of cruelty reports were Greater Geelong and the metropolitan City of Casey, while the regional shires of Pyrenees and Strathbogie ranked the highest per capita.
Other RSPCA data said the organisation had responded to 10,577 reports of animal cruelty statewide – around 30 every day – 46 per cent of which were cases of neglect such as lack of food, water or veterinary care, rather than deliberate acts against animals.
Dogs were by far the most likely victims in reported animal cruelty incidents, being involved in 6485 reports compared to 1873 for cats and 907 for horses.
