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?

I doubt it. We used to support Dogs Trust but they've got more and more unreasonable. We support a small dog rescue charity and recently adopted our 3rd dog through them. She needed a home as a result of her owner's death but Dogs Trust refused to help as she was adopted as a puppy from France - they said she'd need all sorts of blood tests which they couldn't afford! Absolutely bizarre.

Same. The bowl was filthy and the water was dark green. But it was water so that was okay. The poor dog was also in a shit filled very small enclosure, on a chain, but it had water so it was fine and there was nothing to see here.

I've had a small donation going out every month for decades. Just cancelled it.

But even there, we hear of so very many cases of them threatening to prosecute people who are trying to help the animals - often on spurious grounds.

If they fiercely pursued cruel people who knowingly and deliberately harm, abuse and neglect animals, nobody would have any issue with it; but instead, people contact them out of concern for, say, wild creatures who have appeared in their gardens, and they are told that they face legal action or sanctions for their kindness if they put a single foot wrong (according to the RSPCA).

This. They are really really badly run, treat people like shit and useless. Don’t give them money and stay well away. They stopped doing a proper job years ago. Now they are a bunch of show ponies who like to kill peoples animals.

I run a small grassroots charity (not animal related) and I have to echo others: I’d struggle to name a large (UK-based, especially) charity I’d be comfortable giving a donation to. We work with a few, the extent of the waste and “padding” is insane imo.

And likewise, re refusing to come out for an injured fox.

So if the RSPCA won’t help injured, lost or abused animals… what DO they do??

They've literally become the Royal Society for the Promotion of Cruelty to Animals.

Actually… possibly the lifeboat and mountain rescue people, for large charities I’m less cynical about. But no direct experience.

I don't know how justified it is, but the RSPCA have had bad press for a number of years. There certainly seem to have been governance issues, at one point.

I've cancelled my direct debit. I've tried to reconcile the poor public perception with the hope that they do actually perform but Brian May's resignation is the last straw.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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 )

@montelbano same.
RSPCA are grim

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

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.

@elastamum You're a good person.

No one sees the RPSCA in the same light anymore.

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?