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

[Meadowlands]

He has resigned because the RSPCA's response to poor animal welfare was completely inadequate.
When I reported an animal in distress, they refused to investigate, and it was left to my local animal shelter -which is struggling for money - to come to the rescue.
I find it all extremely concerning. Does anyone else have any experiences?

They are useless
I've rang them 4 times over the years and not once did they come out (all genuine calls)

The best one was my neighbour who loved to cause trouble for us-she called them to say I was mistreating my cat
They did come out,and hammered on my door demanding to see my cat
I didn't own a cat,but did point to my dog,who was snoozing away in her bed
The officer got pissed off with me and stood demanding to see the cat when it was quite clear I didn't own one!

They do get a lot of time wasting calls

Jesus, you couldn't show what you didn't have.

Can’t read the awful stories.

He resigned because of cows at an M&S farm being mistreated, presumably then slaughtered and eaten. It’s never pretty, any way you want to stick a bow on it. “Corn fed, allowed to roam, gets a grassy field”- utter bollocks. The animal is still petrified when it’s killed. If you eat meat, cheese, milk you are ok with abuse, so make peace with it.

Is there any way of eating cheese and milk without animal abuse? I'm vegetarian, have been for years, but I really don't want to become vegan. Thinking about it though

I've contacted the RSPCA 3 times over decades and they have never assisted.

They really do seem to choose what they care about based on the potential for drama and confrontation. A sick/endangered animal who is helped will toddle off happy, but with none of the validation for them that they crave. On the other hand, shouting at, bullying, patronising and threatening to sue people - even on entirely spurious or imaginary grounds - does make them feel important and somehow validated.

If the RSPCA were a MNer, they would 100% be one of those who actively seek out threads on topics that don't interest them at all and, instead of ignoring and scrolling on by to find something that does grab them, feel the need to engage to tell everybody else on the thread that they are wrong and stupid to want to discuss and engage with it - just as they are now doing!

I phoned about 2 seagulls that were on the ground unable to fly. I was told that gulls sleep on the ground. Well, when someone has been going round shooting at them, they can't fly, can they? A few weeks later they caught the person responsible, when more had been shot. I don't know what they do, but it doesn't seem much.

Considering there have been multiple instances over the years of vicious dogs being rehomed to completely inappropriate families, or those families not being informed of the dogs nature, IMO the rspca should have been ‘cancelled’ sooner. In one case they deliberately lied to someone about the dogs bite history and it killed the new owner.

As with all big charities, profits and ego got in the way.

They recently raided and killed over a thousand animals at a local animal sanctuary in Norfolk. Some because they weren’t legally allowed to be released back into the wild after being treated like grey squirrels and muntjacs due to old laws about them being invasive and some because they didn’t fit their criteria of being fit for release/rehoming in the RSPCA’s timeframe. Including approximately 300 feral cats that had a home there and were fed, chipped, snipped, vaccinated and received regular medical care but just couldn’t be rehomed. Look up Hallswood.

My only surprise is that Brian May hung on in as long as he did.
Unless they are going to get massive publicity, they aren't interested in run of the mill requests for help, they will however show up for cases where multiple agencies are involved.

Yes! Absolutely useless, their adverts/marketing/pr shows them as animal heros but they are terrible.

First time in 2012 reported a feral cat in the top part of a shed had given birth to 3 kittens, they didn't do anything until one of the kittens fell and smashed both back legs and had to be pts, the other cats were dealt with by a local cats protection charity. The cats were feral and we couldn't get near them without being attacked.

A few months ago, 2 horses were put into a child's play park, with no water, one horses eye was red/swollen/oozing and the horses could get out onto a main road. The police, rspca, local city and county council wouldn't do a thing. They all palmed off to someone else, rspca said the police, police said try council, council said try rspca.... absolutely useless!!

On the one occasion I've contacted them because of the dire conditions that a horse was being kept in, they didn't want to know and told me they didn't have anyone available to do a visit. They said to contact them again a week later if the horse was still in the same condition. 1 week on it had deteriorated so another call was made, still no offer of a visit.
So what is their purpose if they refuse to do their job when asked? They are publicly funded and seem to be ineffective.
Certainly not the caring faces that they portray on their adverts.

They're absolutely useless. A horse escaped into my friends field and it was literally skin and bone. Like a walking skeleton. Called the rspca, turned out it belonged to a neighbor a few fields away and was being neglected. Rspca officer just walked it back to its own field and left it there. Couldn't take any action apparently.

Also called them for an animal hoarder nearby who keeps animals in terrible conditions. RSPCA removed a few of them but the conditions for the remaining ones haven't improved and straight away the hoarder started advertising that he now has space for some more.

Why are so many people not calling the police when they see a crime happening?

That said, the police's animal/wildlife crime depts have always been massively underfunded.
The RSPCA shouldn't have the power to prosecute, it's yet another example of government doing nothing and semi-outsourcing to charities.

Because the police don't even investigate murder, sexual assault and severe violence - they're not gonna care about animals - because they're too busy arresting people for saying a woman can't have a penis.

Oh goodness!

Do you have a source for the anecdote about the dog killing the owner? I have someone I need to show that to?

Thanks 🙂

I see them as existing to raise funds and make adverts and run themselves.

One of the big charities to avoid giving to.

Pretty much this. They won't come out to an animal if it has water. What is the point of them? They only seem to do anything when it's high profile - lots of starving dogs/cats/horses and then whinge that it's going to cost them a lot to look after them.

Oh, I got that wrong! Was Dogs Trust (who are just as bad tbh), not the RSPCA (will try and edit my earlier post). I cannot edit my earlier post - my bad. So it was Dogs Trust who rehomed a dangerous dog...but so did the RSPCA (but the Dogs Trust owner died)

BUT, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11992905/Rescue-dog-owner-lost-arm-pet-bit-suing-RSPCA-200-000.html

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2023-10-20/charity-which-rehomed-dog-which-mauled-owner-stops-taking-in-xl-bullies - they claimed to have stop taking XL Bullies, but if you look at their website...they just now clarify them as mongrels instead.

Thank you 👍🏻

I knew someone who worked at a local animal rescue and used to go out at all hours collecting animals as she knew if she didn't the rspca would either leave or just put them down.

We had a family of feral stray cats that my mum was feeding. My mum ask if they could catch them as there were 4 males round the mum. They said they were fine as they were being fed. She said she would have them all but couldn't catch them and was told "oh you can't just have them, you'd have to be home checked. Didn't say anything when mum pointed out that she was the only one who actually cared about them. She tried cats protection, who wouldn't help because she had spoken to the RSPCA.
A tiny local charity trapped them in the end and they lived with my mum.

We found a muntjac that had been hit by a car. They refused to help as they aren't native. My vet came out to get it.

One positive, they were good when I reported a dog in a car in the blazing sun

Years ago got a dog from them, turned out to have health issues and very aggressive,no help. About 25 years ago, living in the edge of a village, quarter of an acre garden,a stream, bridge over it into fields. My dog had died,DHS dog was 15, we had lots of animals including chicken.rspca inspector checked all our animals, said we had a medium garden. I told her a medium garden is 50ft! She said as we had a bitch we had to have a male,2 bitches couldn't live together. When doggo got to 15, we bought a bitch puppy,6 months later we got another bitch puppy,free, private rescue. I met a lady who became a good friend at work. She used to work for them. She left in disgust. I had a dog from the Blue cross,they have a policy they don't put a healthy dog down! we met the owner,took our dog. Got hers home she was so aggressive,you couldn't put your feet on the floor! We told them to come and collect her. They refused saying we had signed adoption papers. She also leaked urine the whole time, and was incorrectly diagnosed. We had this with the private rescue later on, very simply treated by our long-term vet.

There's an area of land near me with up to about 30 horses at any one time tethered to the ground with about 2m grazing space and no food or water. They are so malnourished and have been there for as long as I can remember, there must have been thousands of calls over the years both my locals and passers by (it's alongside a major road into a big town) but nope because they are owned by travellers who say they nip down and feed them every few days they don't even attempt to investigate. I've stopped driving that way into town as it makes me so sad to see .

I have contacted them three times about different animals in distress, they didn't help at all. Once for a starving trapped bird (they didnt have the resources), once for an injured feral cat (they wouldnt be able to attend until I'd captured it in a trap?) and once for neglected horses (they'd already investigated a report and the horses were fine- very clearly not, open wounds etc). Very upsetting! I won't bother contacting them again, will try to help animals myself.