PSNI officers and animal welfare campaigners have raided a farm in Co Down after receiving a tip-off that animals were being kept in cruel conditions.

The bodies of four decapitated lions were discovered today at a wildlife park in the North where the owner was this week evicted for allowing children to stroke a tiger.

Two dangerous banned dogs were today seized by the Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) following raids in south Belfast.

A top Gaelic footballer’s future career was in doubt today after he was exposed as being heavily involved in an illegal international dog-fighting ring.

The Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has seized dozens of pit bull-type dogs that it says were being specifically bred for fighting purposes.

Thugs hacked off a pet dog’s leg and cut its throat after beating it to death during a brutal onslaught, it emerged tonight.

Twenty-eight pit bull terriers and a pit for fighting have been found by the police in the North.

Tyrone footballer Ger Cavlan has denied any involvement in dog-fighting following the seizure of an illegal pit-bull terrier at his home in Dungannon earlier this week.

CROCODILES which can grow up to three metres long were among a haul of deadly reptiles destined for sale here, it emerged last night.

Animal welfare officers in the North have seized 10 crocodiles and other reptiles found in the boot of a car in Co Down last night.

Animal welfare officers believe they may have broken up a puppy farm in the North during a joint operation with the police.

HERE’s a picture that should give the public paws for thought.

Plans are underway to tighten the law on the keeping of dangerous wild animals in Northern Ireland.

THE net was closing in last night on a big cat running wild on a stretch of Northern Ireland’s coastline.

A puma has been spotted on the loose on the north Antrim coast, it emerged tonight.

Police in the North were today hunting thugs who savagely beat to death more than a dozen sheep and lambs at an isolated farm.