Cruelty investigations at Victoria SPCA are up more than 25 per cent from last year, and animal protection staff are questioning why more people are abusing their pets.

"I don't think it's the economy because many of the people we are dealing with are already at the bottom of the economic scale, so it's not likely they have lost mega-investment money," said animal protection officer Erika Paul.

Paul and animal welfare officer Lynsay Bailey are hoping the upswing is due to growing public awareness and, in a city that has an animal-loving reputation, a mounting distaste for animal cruelty -- meaning more cases are reported.

"A lot of the cases now are blatant neglect or abuse. I am hoping the numbers are going up because attitudes are changing and people are realizing pets are not lawn ornaments," Paul said.

But with 400 cases investigated so far this year, some of which have left Paul and Bailey shaking their heads in disbelief, it is sometimes hard to think positive.

Among the more distressing cases is an investigation into a man alleged to have hanged a horse on a Saanich Peninsula property.

Other investigations are complicated by drugs or alcohol.

"We've just had one addicted person where we had to get her to promise to use the toilet because the dog was eating her poo," Paul said.

"I'm not sure whether that constitutes causing distress to the dog or not."

It is frustrating that, even when concerned citizens call the SPCA, they are often reluctant to come forward as witnesses.

"People have pertinent information, but they won't hand it to us," Bailey said.

"People just want us to go in and get the animal, but they don't want to get involved. Often, charges can't go through without witnesses," she said.

An example is a man who flung his dog onto a garbage can on Douglas Street this summer.

Passersby called both police and Victoria Animal Control. The man is clearly caught on surveillance cameras, but no witnesses have come forward.

Among those charged under the provincial Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, scheduled to go to court this month, are a Sooke couple who allegedly ignored their dog's medical condition after being told she needed corrective surgery to stop her eyelashes from rubbing ulcers on her corneas. The man and woman will appear in court Nov. 19.

A Victoria woman is to appear Thursday after allegedly pushing glue traps onto her nine-week-old kitten's paws and then ripping off the traps to discipline the kitten.

A warrant has been issued for another Victoria woman who abandoned her rental home and left two budgies in a cage. One was found alive and the other died. A post-mortem confirmed starvation was probably the cause of death.

jlavoie@tc.canwest.com