News.com.au reports today that 2004 was the worst year on record for animal abuses in Queensland, Australia.

In 2002, Queensland's 16 RSPCA inspectors investigated 5383 complaints.

That jumped to 9605 in 2003 and 10,786 last year.

So far this year, there have already been 951 complaints of cruelty.

Only a small fraction of these lead to prosecutions – 62 in 2002, 61 in 2003, 87 last year and 17 so far this year.

The article really doesn't go into explaining why the abuses are up. But it sounds to me that there are two factors at play. One is that more people own dogs, and two is that animal control can't adequately enforce the laws. I don't think it's that people are becoming more violent, it's just laws can't be enforced.