The strangling and subsequent mutilation of a new-born lamb in Tayside is just one of a harrowing catalogue of crimes against animals in Courier country.
A three-week-old animal was removed from its mother in the field before shocked police found it with its ears and tail removed.
Post-mortem examination revealed bruising around the neck, raising suspicions of asphyxiation but the culprit was never found.
A Courier investigation into the number of crimes reported against domestic animals across Central Scotland, Tayside and Fife policing areas found 167 recorded instances of cruelty over the last three years of which 66 escaped detection.
The sickening details of the lamb’s death came to light because recording protocols in some former force areas saw actions against non-domestic animals classified as animal cruelty rather than wildlife cases.
New figures, obtained under freedom of information legislation, revealed a number of crimes against protected or rare animals before forces came under the Police Scotland banner in April this year.
Notable instances in the former Central Scotland included extensive unauthorised use of snaring and the set-up of an electrical device for killing or stunning wild birds, the release of two non-native beavers in the Tayside policing area, and 43 cases in Fife alone of cruelty to dogs.
Some 79 cases of cruelty were recorded in Fife area between 2009 and April this year (23 undetected), followed by Central Scotland with 71 (31 undetected) and Tayside with 17 (12 undetected).
No instances of animal cruelty in the Mearns were reported by the former Grampian Police.
Chief Superintendent Mike Flynn of the Scottish SPCA, said: “Calls to the animal helpline have jumped from 126,000 in 2008 to 195,000 in 2012 an increase of 55% in just four years.
“The vast majority of callers reported cruelty cases, animals in distress or were seeking welfare advice.
“Our inspectors sent 162 reports to the procurator fiscal, resulting in 55 people receiving banning orders on keeping animals, 11 of which were for life, 62 fines and one jail sentence.
“Preventing cruelty to animals is at the heart of our work and that’s why we’re investing heavily in our free education programme for Scottish schools, which reached over 260,000 children last year.”
A discomforting entry in the former Tayside Police’s records showed how one cat died after having been shot by an unknown weapon that caused three wounds and shattered its bones, before it was found dead two days later.
Another entry last year records one entry of inserting a “foreign object into cat causing internal damage”.
Police Scotland said descriptions of cases vary due to different recording practices between previous force areas.
The figures relate to crime reports created, rather than individual crimes.
For example, if an individual was charged with a number of offences in relation to one incident, a crime report would be created in relation to every separate offence.
Therefore, the number of reports may be higher than the number of accused involved.