Animal cruelty cases rose by more than 30pc in Norfolk last year with 200 reports to the RSPCA.

The charity saw a 32pc year-on-year increase in reports of animal cruelty, 18pc higher than the national average. 

One of the cases involved a five-year-old bulldog who was found abandoned in the garden of a house in Marshland St James.

She was found covered in open and weeping wounds, believed to be cancerous tumours that had become infected.

The finder contacted the council dog warden who took her to a vet where she was given pain relief.

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The dog was collected by Carl Saunders from the RSPCA and seen by another vet who examined her.

It was then decided that, due to the severity of the condition, the kindest thing to do was to put the dog to sleep to end her suffering.

Carl Saunders, branch manager for the West Norfolk branch, said: “The condition this poor girl had been left in will stay with me forever - it was just heartbreaking to think someone had allowed her to get into this condition.”

Compared to Norfolk's rise of 32pc, the national increase of calls to the RSPCA was 14pc.