The Sentencing Council is currently looking to introduce new guidance for the courts on how to sentence the most serious animal welfare offences, such as causing unnecessary suffering, tail docking and animal fighting.

The Council has invited the public to have their say as part of a consultation exercise.

We, the undersigned, would now urge the Council to take this opportunity to  review a crucial area when it comes to the protection of animals from cruelty - the disqualification of ownership of animals. 

Animals have a right to be properly protected from cruelty and the only way to ensure this is to impose an automatic lifetime ban, without the possibility of appeal, on those who abuse them.

Where someone has failed to meet the basic dietary, exercise and veterinary needs of their pets, they have demonstrated that they are incapable of taking care of animal.

There are others who take pleasure from deliberately inflicting pain and suffering on living creatures as the cases in our photo montage show. 

Many people still indulge in sadistic blood sports like fox and badger digging and baiting and dog fighting.

In all cases, there is little prospect that the abuser will change their behaviour, putting at risk the lives of other creatures, who deserve better than this.

The authorities must take animal cruelty seriously. People who cause animal suffering through neglect should be banned for life from keeping animals. Those convicted of deliberately inflicting pain on animals for pleasure or profit should also be banned for life. 

The introduction of a mandatory lifetime ban will help prevent animal suffering and end inconsistencies in this area of sentencing.

They also send an important message to the British public that owning an animal is a privilege rather than a right — and that the courts will take action against those who harm or exploit them.