Some 2024 wins for animal welfare in
our rescue work
• We focused our efforts on helping animals suffering cruelty and
neglect or in situations where only our expertise could help them.
• We empowered the public to deal with animal welfare incidents
that didn't need our direct expert intervention. We engaged and
educated people through our online triage tool - introduced in
August - to take action themselves where possible.
• Our rescuers reached more animals most in need significantly
more quickly as a direct result of people using the triage tool.
From July to December, we attended 40 percent more new
incidents of cruelty and neglect and our average response times
dropped by 42 percent compared to 2023.
• Around 75 percent of the animals we reached had high or medium
levels of suffering.
Challenges
• To focus on animals most in need, we actively strengthened our
partnership working with statutory bodies, rescue charities and
other organisations. Economic pressures made it difficult for
some of our partners to help some animals, but we're continuing
to work with them to ensure animals do get the support they
need in the future.
What's coming up
In line with our strategy commitment to focus on those animals
most in need, and to harness public compassion to help us drive
animal welfare forward, in 2025 we'll:
• reduce the risk of harm to animals with more support and
education for people struggling to look after them, avoiding
prosecution where possible
• conduct our investigations in a more efficient and effective way
where animals are harmed
• pilot the use of body-worn cameras to protect our rescuers,
help secure primary evidence, reduce complaints and improve
our prosecution process.
TRUSTEES' REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2024 17
We investigated
61,000 complaints
about animals
suffering abuse
and neglect
We showed
animal abusers that
their crimes will be
punished, securing
527 convictions
Animals in need
got help straight
away when
200,000+ people
used our new online
triage system
Our rescuers
got to 40 percent
more animals in the
most urgent need
because of our
online triage system
LEAF Greener
and cleaner
We're trialling the use
of electric vans for our
frontline rescuers