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

This is very worrying ! The use of muzzles to prevent laminitis / over feeding is standard. Even if the RSPCA officer was unfamiliar with muzzles, a quick google when faced with the report would have been useful. Also would have saved all that ( costly) wasted time for all concerned.

Running costs would be far less. Redundancy costs might be a big part but you only close a charity when you are winding it down or get closed down.
Other costs go down in the winding up process.

Sounds like RSPCA are just a giant GoFundMe ad.

I thought it was a given how useless/ineffective they are. Husband is a bobby and said they have been hopeless/not interested when they report animal neglect.

They put down healthy ones

https://www.rspca.org.uk/whatwedo/latest/facts

well here is their defence. Claim they spend 82% on animal welfare,1% on governance and 17% on fundraising

of course what animal welfare means is another question and their ‘myths’ answers seem weak tbh

I don’t think I know a national charity that isn’t questionable.

from national lottery athlete funding through to macmillan, rspca etc. the money goes to the people running it, not the end users it’s intended for.

Not surprised to read any of these shit stories of how wank the RSPCA are, similar experience when I reported a neglected horse-didn't meet their non-existent threshold 🙄
They pay so much money to the exec's and put fuck all donations into welfare, wouldn't give them a fucking penny. Much better to donate to local animal welfare charities.

Yep - one big charity hadn’t been filing its accounts so had penalties ratcheting up with knock on effect on other filings with more penalties. Low thousands but when you think of someone scraping together a couple of quid to donate and it goes on this kind of thing it is sickening

xref the Naomi Campbell charity where more money went on her attending events then on the actual causes

bit you do have to be careful with small charities too. I saw one that delivered a specific product to war zones. Checked their accounts and they purchased the products from a company they ran and the prices were inflated. Didn’t donate and a couple of years later they were struck off by charity commission

I worked in private sector all my life and had lots of direct debits going to various big charities (not animal). Then I did some work in the charity sector and trust me, I will not give to any unless they are small campaign groups or local organisations.

Had a friend who once worked in finance at RSPCA. She was horrified when she saw some local school girls doing a charity fundraiser for them. "What are you giving the money to them for? They don't need it!"

What sort of oversight is there for the fact they are allowed to take prosecutions?

Why are they so interested in prosecuting over everything else they're supposed to be about? They obviously don't want to get their hands dirty with those scummy animals so what it is about? Is it to do with paying their expensive lawyer friends lots of money from donations that were made for animals' sakes? Are the prosecutions about jailing the offenders or getting money from them? Or is it about merely getting mentioned in the papers so they can justify their charitable status?

No one sees the RPSCA in the same light anymore.

@elastamum You're a good person.

Years ago we tried repeatedly over several months to get them to come out and look at a poor horse that was being badly neglected. They weren't interested. Eventually I tracked down the owner, bought it off her, took it to ours and immediately got the vet out. Sadly, we eventually had to euthanase it as it had a terrible infection and we were unable to save it. A couple of days later the RSPCA got in touch with me to ask what had happened! They wanted to try to take action against the previous owner but had absolutely no interest in saving the horse. The whole episode cost me about a grand, but I couldn't just leave it to die.

This.
I used to work for a large charity (not animal related). I will never donate to any big charity.

@montelbano same.
RSPCA are grim

They would be my last option.
Too many shiny adverts, too little actual helping animals
I don't donate to them ,or shop in their overpriced shops (it's "for the puppies & the kitties, dramatic pause Don't you care?" From a volunteer who was stood shaking a bucket outside of the shop )

I simply cannot express how appalling the RSPCA is without getting a ban. I work as a volunteer at a small cat rescue charity and the tales of our experiences with the RSPCA are horrifying.

I have had several causes to report stuff to the RSPCA through work, and without exception they have refused to attend and have been absolutely shit. I will never donate to them, I tend to work with little grass roots charities and support them instead.

I've never had anything to do with the national team but I did try to reduce a kitten from our local branch which is volunteer ran and I can only say positives about the lady I took the kitten from. I had to unfortunately take this kitten back (due to partners possible allergy) and I was devastated. She comforted me in her own home, allowed me to stay as long as I needed and even checked I was OK to drive home.

My friend was on holiday and saw a horse tied to a lampost at the side of the A1. RSPCA did fuck all.

I remember this case. The abuser was a regular on a breed specific forum showing off the horses and their achievements with her daughter, so to see it all end that way was just horrific. A foot trim, a good bath with a medicated shampoo and a bit of food and all of those horses were easily rehomeble - in fact some of them were only on loan to the abuser and could have been returned to their owners

I have to agree with this. Myself, and a number of neighbours, and quite a number of people I've known over the last 25 years or so have reported different things, (animals in distress, animals left alone, animals struggling, animals suffering,) all to the R. S. P. C. A - and they've done absolutely nothing about any of them.

As you said, unless the camera is on them - rescuing a kitten out of a drain or something - they don't do anything, and they don't want to know. I don't see the point of them, really. All they want to do is prosecute people, and shame people. Some people deserve it, but some do not.

I remember a neighbour of mine some years ago. She was in her early 60s and she was disabled - poor mobility - and she was struggling after her young adult son had got a guinea pig and had left home suddenly, and left the guinea pig with her.

It was difficult to look after (for her) and ended up getting a little bit messy - and his cage was not being cleaned properly. Someone reported it to the RSPCA and instead of trying to help and advise her, or saying 'look, this guinea pig is not being cared for properly. You clearly can't cope,' and taking it off her to give to someone else to look after, they went in all guns blazing, treated her like a monster, and decided to prosecute her.

She had to go to court, had a £1000 fine given to her, (which she had to agree to pay in instalments of £30 a month as she had very little money,) and she had a criminal record for animal neglect. It absolutely devastated her.

The story was in the newspapers and she was labelled being 'cruel to animals.' The papers embellished the story, and made her out to be an evil cow who had been plain cruel to this guinea pig, when all it was is that she was struggling to cope with him.. All that should have happened is he should have been taken off her. That's it.

She actually died about a year after the prosecution - and only in her early 60s. I'm pretty sure that the stress of this contributed towards it.

That happening, along with the fact they don't seem to give a shit 90% of the time when someone reports an animal in distress, has made me loathe and detest and despise the RSPCA with all my heart. They only turn up when there are glory points - or a prosecution in the pipeline.