2020 Animal Cruelty Hotspots

2020 was a year marked with the unforeseen burden of COVID-19, so it is encouraging to note that despite the additional challenges, a total of 1,535 fewer cruelty complaints were reported than in 2019.

This is an improvement described by RSPCA Queensland spokesperson, Michael Beatty, as a “glimmer of hope”; however, with Inspectorate cases still tipping the tally at 17,146, our Task Force continues to be incredibly busy.

Many investigations lead to prosecution and in 2020, a total of 143 cruelty cases were finalised. A little lower than the financial year results, mainly due to cases postponed and rescheduled due to COVID-19 impacting court dates.  

The top cruelty complaints we received included the following issues:

• Animals in poor condition
• Animals with insufficient food and water
• Poor living conditions
• Animals being tethered and not receiving exercise
• Animal cruelty
• Animals without veterinary treatment
• Abandoned animals
• Animals without shelter
• Heat stress

It’s incredible to think 1,116 animal emergency calls to RSPCA Queensland in 2020 were related to heat stress - either the animal was left in a hot car or it couldn’t reach shade and water in the yard. This is a disturbing statistic – Queensland’s heat is deadly and animals need to be able to stay cool.

Unfortunately, Caboolture continues to lead the list with 178 animal welfare complaints in 2020. Morayfield follows with 143, and Redbank Plains maintains its 2019 number of 141. Suburbs such as Inala are much improved after showing a significant decrease from the previous year’s 126 complaints down to 80 — a pleasing 37% drop.

1,675 suburbs had at least one cruelty/neglect case, and while a 69% majority of suburbs recorded fewer than 10 complaints, sadly 52 suburbs are still recording greater than 50 complaints.

How did your suburb stack up? Check out our interactive Google Map to see how many complaints were received from your suburb and how things look around the state. Simply zoom in and click on the suburb pins to see the total number of cruelty cases for each area.