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Does filming “grotesque” acts of animal cruelty make it a worse offence?

Redcar MP Anna Turley thinks it does - and she’s argued the case in Parliament.

The Labour MP spoke out in the Commons about the trend of such filming with the aim of sharing and uploading videos to social media.

Her comments came during a debate about animal welfare sentencing - prompted, in part, by the horrific case of Baby the bulldog , who was filmed by the Frankish brothers in 2013 being thrown down the stairs in a Redcar house.

Andrew and Daniel Frankish, aged 22 and 19 when they were sentenced, were sentenced to 21 weeks in prison, suspended for two years.

She said: “We see many examples at the moment on social media of video clips of cruelty going viral.

“People kicking cats, tormenting small animals, horrific things that get shared on social media.

“The perpetrators of cruelty are not content simply with inflicting injury on their animals, but they are motivated to do so to go viral, to get hits and to be shared.

“This is grotesque and I think this practice demonstrates a greater level of malicious intent.”

Speaking during the second reading debate in the Commons of the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill, which aims to raise animal cruelty sentencing to a new maximum of five years, the MP said offences involving filming possibly required a “specific deterrent”.

She said: “I’d urge the Government to consider the possibility of an aggravated sentence for those who film themselves undertaking these kinds of acts and I’ll be tabling an amendment at committee and ask the Government to support that.”

Ms Turley said a change in the law to bring in tougher sentencing had “been a long time coming”, adding: “Animal abusers have been getting away for too long now with a slap on the wrist and this Bill is finally I hope justice for the thousands of animals who have suffered at the hands of human cruelty.”

She referred to two high-profile animal cruelty cases in Redcar - Baby the bulldog, and Scamp the dog, who was found buried alive in woods with a nail hammered into its head.

She said: “On researching these crimes and the sentencing, and how it could possibly have resulted in such impossibly lenient sentences, I was absolutely astonished to find that the maximum sentence for any form of animal abuse was just six months custody.

“Incredibly this has not changed since the Protection of Animals Act in 1911...the law is lagging a century behind and if we are to continue declaring ourselves a nation of animal lovers this Bill is necessary to send a loud and clear message that we take animal cruelty seriously.”