Warning: This story contains distressing content.

The average animal abuser in Victoria is a 38-year-old man, though some are as young as 11 or as old as 83. Many are prosecuted for neglect, rather than deliberate acts of cruelty, but about 98 per cent of them avoid jail.

Those who do serve a prison sentence are usually out again within three months.

These are some of the findings from a landmark review into punishments given to Victorians caught harming animals, which has revealed the urgent need for new sentencing guidelines. Most abusers walk from court with a fine.

In the past decade more than 60 per cent of the state's cruelty cases have been dealt with by fines but a Sentencing Advisory Council review found this could make the issue worse rather than reduce cases of abuse.