THE Southern Grampians Shire (SGS) has recorded better results compared to other local areas for animal welfare, with the 2021-22 RSPCA report showing the number of incidents in the last financial year has remained steady.

Over the past three years, the number of animal cruelty reports in SGS has barely changed, totalling 35 (2021-22), 38 (2020-21) and 35 (2019-20) in the recent annual reports.

In 2021-22, our shire was impressively ranked 65 out of 79 areas across the state, which was on the back of a very low number of reports, and is the exact same ranking as the previous year.

In addition to this, our region was just ranked 38 out of 79 for ranking per capita with one report for every 474 people, which was ranked in the middle of the field.

Our local shire was best ranked in comparison to other regions, whose report rankings were on the downward spiral.

Glenelg Shire had a greater number of animal cruelty reports and was ranked 61 out of 79, with 48 reports for the year – this placed the shire 31 out of 79 in rankings per capita.

Moyne Shire (56th) also had more reports than both with 58 which ranked it 56 out of 79 areas, however when calculated per capita, Moyne had a bad rate of one report every 300 people which ranked it the 13th worst shire for the year in that category.

There were 10,577 animal cruelty reports across the state during the 2021-22 year with 46 per cent of those related to neglect.

Dogs were by far the most animal reported, accounting for 6485 cases, while cats (1873) and horses (907) followed - of these reports and investigations, more than 285 charges were laid in Victoria.

This number averages out to a staggering 30 reports per day in Victoria, and the RSPCA said, “raising awareness is important for ending cruelty”.

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.