To ask about your opinion on the RSPCA after Brian May resignation

I wish charities you pick to support would stop with the hardcopy mail outs. I don't actually need a valentines or a bday card from a dog I sponsor /a charity I support, I would prefer to opt out and that money be spent on caring for the animals.

I guess thats just pence in comparison to Director / CEO salaries though.

Your story of wee Annie brought a tear to my hard as nails eyes @GraceAnatomy , you were both so lucky to have each other in your lives ❤

What authority does a charity have to intimidate and prosecute people? Are they actually allowed to demand access to someone's home?

@GraceAnatomy Bless you for looking after Orphan Annie. That cow of an SSPCA officer though.. how do people like that sleep at night?

I think the anger should be directed towards the animal abusers. The level of cruelty and abuse is overwhelming . The RSPCA are just spread too thin to attend every call.

There is a lot wrong with the national RSPCA (Brian resigned over their farming accreditation schemes) but local self funded branches are fabulous.

Our local one works so hard and are completely overwhelmed with cats and small furries but always come out to help and collect the injured and strays.

That gravy train is quite expensive to keep going…

I've been giving them £20 a month for about 20 years. I got my dog from them. I'm loathe to stop, but I have wondered if my money would be better used by a local small dog charity, or possibly Dogs Trust.

I’ve known several people who work for them, either as inspectors, vets or much higher up. They are all individually good people who care about animals.

However, I have never had one good experience with the RSPCA, whether it was trapped/injured wild animals, domestic animals, dumped horses…you name it, the RSPCA were shit about it and - at an organisational level - could not give one shiny shit about animal welfare overall. As a PP said, they care about prosecutions, their public image and income.

Like a lot of farming/horsey/rural folk, as an organisation I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.

Ahh yes, the RSPCA.....
Relative decided to start breeding rabbits out of his shed. Litter upon litter. Female was overbred, stressed and eating the kits. Those that weren't eaten had their ears chewed off.
RSPCA did fuck all.

Wouldn't give them a penny.

I worked in the charity sector about 25 years ago, and the RNLI had a reputation for banking millions, and not spending anything. Not sure whether that still applies, though.

Good God! That is shocking!
Well done to you, though.
So the SSPCA is every bit as useless and nasty as its southern counterpart? Who knew?

That is a very fair point.

I am so sad reading your stories. What a crock of shite the RSPCA is. How the hell can we change this? Ffs.

The RSPCA spend heavily in advertising - they're not going to want to risk losing that.

What’s the actual point of them, then?! Do even they know?

When I was growing up, mid teens onwards I wanted to be an RSPCA inspector.

BUT, they pay those poor inspectors so little for such an emotional and difficult job whilst the top bods get paid silly money. I've read so many bad things about the RSPCA, like a lot of the big charities. Top heavy, greedy CEO's.

I stopped supporting WWF when a new PA started at work who had come from there. She was on £75k there as a PA. I dread to think what her boss was on.

Family member had a pet dumped on them. Think let someone live in their house out of goodwill because they were on their arse. When they left they left their caged pet.

Pet was constantly back and forth to the vet because it had long standing issues. Person then wanted pet back now it had lots of vet treatment. Family said no. Reported to rspca who went and took said animal and had their vet put it to sleep after declaring it was neglected and immobile completely in its back end. Despite video footage of said pet wondering its cage days prior and visitor testimony. Banned from keeping caged pers and fined. Dog was allowed to stay though.

Now I hated the blooded caged animal but it never smelt any worse than any other caged animal, had toys and treats and vet trips. Certainly came to the cage when I walked by but nope neglected and paralysed apparently.

Yes, I know all this. I used to volunteer in a rescue centre and have adopted over 15 cats from various rescues. I was just saying I was impressed that they were picky.

Most independent cat rescue centres will do home checks or at least look up location and do not re-home cats near busy roads. The reason for home checks is also to look at the family dynamics esp with small children. Putting a new cat with a boisterous toddler, especially one which ignores commands from parents is asking for disaster both for the child and the cat. A couple of overactive, mischievous kittens are not a good fit with a pristine house and silk curtains ( unless they are happy for the kittens to use the curtains as a climbing wall!)
Basically most reputable rescue centres want to make sure the animal and the prospective owners are a good fit

I’ve been really lucky and had good service from them when called upon. Not diminishing all these terrible stories but maybe it is pot luck based on who your local team are.

A baby pigeon - they were driving to collect it from me, but I put them off and took it to a local bird rescue instead. Was surprised they were willing to help with that one.

A cat who had clearly had kittens and was thin as a rake, eating roadkill. 🤢 They paid the cost of a vet check.

They came to collect a lost/ escaped pet snake (!) from my garden.

We’ve also adopted cats from them and had a good experience with that. They were picky about making sure they didn’t rehome cats to houses near busy or main roads which I was pleased to hear.

Although given the nations reputation for being animal lovers you would think some of these stories would be interesting to them!

@Bruisername yes, they probably only want the more salacious type threads..

It’s a shame the papers don’t pick these threads off MN