POLICE in Glasgow investigate more than 50 cases of animal cruelty and neglect a year, figures show.
Information from Police Scotland showed officers looked into 55 cases in 2013 and more than 300 in six years.
The figures, covering the Glasgow area from 2008 to 2013, showed an average of 55 cases each year, and exactly that number in 2013. Of last year's cases, 36 went to court and 19 were unresolved.
A Scottish SPCA spokeswoman said one of the most recent to reach court involved a bearded dragon - an Australian lizard - with its tail hacked off by a knife.
A woman aged 33 from Provanmill was sentenced at Glasgow Sheriff Court to 140 hours' community service and a year's supervision order in February.
She pled guilty to causing her three-year-old adult male bearded dragon unnecessary suffering by failing to provide veterinary treatment.
Chief Superintendent Mike Flynn, of the Scottish SPCA, said the actual number of cruelty cases could be three times as high as the official figures, with some cases not ending in court.
He said: "It's easier if the case involves a dog, for example, because you know who owns it.
"We get between 170 to 190 cases a year across Scotland that are reported to the procurator fiscal.
"But there could be 500 to 600, many of them involving wildlife crime, which are difficult to prove so they don't get to court."
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