A SOUTHAMPTON dog which was shot in the head four times by his owner has visited Downing Street as part of calls for longer prison sentences for animal abusers.

Two-year-old Jet was found dumped in scrubland in Southampton last July with horrendous injuries.

The Lakeland terrier had been shot in the head four times with an air rifle and spent five days collapsed and alone before being found and rushed to a vet.

The RSPCA launched an investigation and traced the man responsible for the brutal injuries.

Earlier this month, 37-year-old Simon Hancock, of Terrier Close, Hedge End, was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to Jet and sentenced to 200 hours of community service, ordered to pay more than £1,600 in costs and disqualified from keeping animals for ten years.

Now, as part of a campaign to increase prison sentences for animal cruelty, Jet was taken to 10 Downing Street by the RSPCA.

Joining them were representatives from nine other leading animal welfare organisations.

The group met on Monday, June 24, to meet the prime minister’s environment adviser, Lord Randall, to call for the government to act.

Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the RSPCA, said: “It’s been more than 18 months since the Government pledged to increase penalties for the most serious cases of animal cruelty – and we’re still waiting for them to fulfil their promise. During that time, animals have been shot, stabbed, set on fire, drowned, beaten and left to starve to death.

“A maximum sentence of six months in prison for beating a dog to death with a shovel or throwing a cat off the roof of a building simply isn’t enough.”

Environment secretary Michael Gove first announced the intention to increase maximum prison sentences from six months to five years in September 2017.

Following a national campaign by Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, he visited the charity in south London in December 2017.