CONVICTIONS for animal cruelty in the Midlands doubled last year - but the RSPCA says it's good news because it underlines how people are much more tuned in to animal welfare.

In its latest series of statistics released yesterday (Wednesday), the charity says the number of convictions for animal cruelty rose from 98 in 1999 to 172 in 2000.

The breakdown of the RSPCA's workload across the West Central area, which covers Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, also shows it carried out 300 more rescues than the previous year.

The area showed an increase in prosecutions and the number of cruelty complaints investigated also rose.

However, the charity received almost 25,000 calls less than the previous year. In the Worcestershire area, which also covers Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, the charity recorded 11 prosecutions and 12 convictions from 3,463 cases investigated. Warwickshire registered five prosecutions and six convictions from 1,668 cases investigated.

Jo Cunningham of the RSPCA said: "People are so much more tuned into animal welfare these days. It's become more of a priority over the last five or six years, which is excellent.

"Our main aim is to stop animals from suffering and what we are urging is that we would much rather people came to us than us turning up at their house to prosecute them."

"The advent of programmes like Animal Hospital and Pet Rescue have made people more aware of what suffering some animals go through which has helped to increase and has made better the reporting of animal cruelty."