By VANESSA CHIRCOP
ALMOST two dozen animals were seized from Hobsons Bay residents last year.
Despite this, in 2011 the RSPCA saw a significant decrease in animal cruelty complaints from the area.
Eighty-three animal cruelty complaints were received compared to 136 complaints in 2010.
A spokesperson for the RSPCA said often pet owners will voluntarily surrender their animals when the RSPCA identify a welfare issue.
Last year 13 animals in Hobsons Bay were voluntarily surrendered to the organisation.
“If an animal becomes the property of the RSPCA’s we are then able to rehome it once it has been rehabilitated,” he said.
“If it is not voluntarily surrendered, we must wait until court proceedings have finished, which is sometimes months and months, before we can rehome.”
Neighbouring municipality Maribyrnong saw 62 complaints made last year while Brimbank saw a whopping 476 complaints received by the RSPCA.
Western Suburbs Animal Rescue Service spokesperson Nathan Miles said he was not surprised by the figures. “We see a lot of animals that have been starved – we got a call out recently about a dog and found him in a shocking state,” Mr Miles said.
“He was just skin and bones.”
Mr Miles said he believed these severe cases of starvation weren’t accidents but intentional animal cruelty.
“We had a call out for a peacock that had been severely neglected – it managed to escape with a rope still around its leg and it was found in someone’s backyard eating dog food.”
Mr Miles said it wasn’t just domestic animals that were experiencing cruelty but wild animals and water birds like swans.
“Some people let their dogs off their leash and let them attack water birds.”
As reported by Star previously, there have been a number of recent incidents involving swans in Hobsons Bay, including one swan ‘Lucky’ being shot with an archer’s arrow.
Mr Miles said stray cats were also a huge issue.
“We get a lot of dumped cats and litters of kittens dumped in Hobsons Bay,” he said.
