THE current maximum penalty for animal welfare offences in England is six months imprisonment. In Ireland it’s five years, three years in Germany and two years in France.

In the past few years there have been cases of extreme cruelty in England where magistrates have wanted to impose higher penalties but have been unable to.

In a recent RSPCA poll, seven out of 10 people said that they wanted the penalties to be tougher but when LibDem peer Kate Parminter asked the Government to look at sentencing, the response was only to offer to revise guidance to magistrates.

This may result in more offenders going to prison (out of 1,781 successful prosecutions by the RSPCA in 2015, 71 received custodial sentences) it will not enable magistrates to give longer sentences.

Out of 35 European countries reviewed by Battersea Dogs’ and Cats’ Home only Belgium had lower penalties.

To make matters worse, last November the Commons Environment Committee proposed that the RSPCA be stripped of its powers of prosecution and that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) should prosecute instead – the RSPCA has a 99.3 per cent prosecution success rate whereas the CPS has an 85 per cent success rate.

How we treat animals is a reflection of the way a country respects life in general and we need to be setting an example in Europe and the world rather than lagging behind.

Philip Knowles, chair, Richmondshire Liberal Democrats