Rosie was allowed to go bald through neglect

The RSPCA wants to find out more about what makes young people develop the attitudes towards animals which lead to such abuse.

For this reason it is funding a new research project by Manchester Metropolitan University to investigate patterns of behaviour among young offenders convicted of animal cruelty charges.

The idea is that if this kind of behaviour can be better understood, it may be possible to prevent some cases of animal cruelty.

Previous research shows that attitudes towards animals are usually formed by the age of eight, so the RSPCA hopes it may be possible to stamp out cruel tendencies before they take hold.

Many cases handled by the RSPCA result not from a single act of sadism but from long-term neglect. Bliss, for instance, a German Shepherd from Leicester was found being kept in a filthy yard with another dog.

Eye disease

She was getting no proper food but having to find what scraps she could. She was half her proper weight and suffered from an eye disease.

Almost 10,000 pets were rescued last year

After being taken into an RSPCA rescue centre and nurtured back to health for eight months she was adopted by Annie and Ray Constantine.

They say she retains a fear of men, and at first could not accept that the food put in a bowl was for her, as she was so used to scavenging from rubbish bins.

The record number of calls to the RSPCA does not mean we are getting crueller.

It may well be that the growing profile of the society through TV programmes means that people are more likely to alert them.

But today's figures do show that for a nation of animal lovers, the catalogue of cruelty in Britain remains depressingly high.