to think that the RSPCA is being totally irresponsible?

[HKT]

A lady in the town where I live has greyhouds - I think she shows them. She lives in a tiny house with a tiny garden.
A few weeks ago, she bought 8 greyhound puppies. These are kept in a shed in her garden. It's not a tiny shed, but probably about 5' x 8', IMO, not big enought to keep 8 greyhounds in.
These puppies are in the shed all day, apart from a few minutes romp around the (tiny) garden each day. The noise from them is indescribable, and the smell as you walk past makes you gag!
I've rung the RSPCA about them, along with several others, and all they say is "monitor it for a few weeks". This has already been going on for over a month.
We contacted the RSPCA, thinking that they would care that a bunch of puppies were living in squalor, bringing themselves up with barely any human contact, not having any socialisation, so in all probability, they will end up nasty dogs through no fault of their own.
The owner is a strange old woman who has had harrassment charges against her for being very unreasonable with her neighbours, so talking to her about it isn't an option.
Next step is environmental health, but AIBU to think that the RSPCA should have dealt with this, and not passed the buck (although they usually do this, so why should I be surprised and disappointed in them

YANBU. It's a bloody disgrace. I had a similar situation a few years ago where a neighbour was keeping mountain dogs in a tiny pen. We reported her and bugger all was done. If she shows them would it be worth ringing the kennel club?

Not at all U. Is the RSPCA the only animal welfare organisation you can contact? what about the blue cross or the local authority .

The RSPCA drive me mad - but that is a separate issue...

YANBU - call the council.

YANBU
I thought the RSPCA had been given more power by changes to legislation - why don't they use it? You know what, sadly, could be a resources issue - not enough people to investigate, much like social services where the thresholds keep going up.

YANBU

Last week we found an injured dog and they wouldn't come and fetch him,said 'we don't do dogs'. Vets was closed so we just ahd to gold onto him aginst tenancy rles until next day when dog warned would come.

Have you called your council dog warden?

Council is the next step, as well as ringing the local vets. Just pissed off that in front of cameras, and for PR, the RSPCA can do no wrong, when actually, Iknow so many incidents that just prove they don't deserve the backing they get. They're completely pants!

We once rang the RSPCA about some ducks on a pond. A young dog had got in and savaged them, a few were dead but there were about 4 or 5 in a right state with wings half hanging off, really distressed, bobbing around amongst the dead ones

We rang the RSPCA expecting that they would come and put them out of their misery of something, but actually they just said it wasn't the sort of thing they were interested in and gave us no advice as to what we should do next.

i didn't realise that they were pretty useless generally. Their PR is very effective isn't it.

YANBU. What exactly does the RSPCA do?

Actually I came very close to asking them f they'd come if Is aid I had a caera crew

They asked if they could contact me for campaigns. yes they can, but preferably on bad days when I need someone to rant at.

I used to have a neighbour like this

Loads of dogs in the house, occasionally let out to bark themselves silly
I complained because it was obvious all was not well

By the time the rspca did something the dogs had multiplied to 93 (living in the house and shit filled basement)
One of them was giving birth while the rspca were there - she ate her puppy due to her distress
They were told they mustnt keep animals again

Within a few months they acquired 10 chicken houses and filled the garden with chickens instead

Not a good idea to report dogs to the RSPCA. They have shot 10 gsd's with a bolt pistol.

www.germanshepherdrescue.co.uk/gsd-shot-by-rspca.html

And are rightly criticised for failing to help animals.

RSPCA-Animadversion
cheetah.webtribe.net/~animadversion/

A report to the RSPCA is usually a death sentence for an animal unless it is a pretty or expensive one that they know they can sell.

Ours was claimed within 12 hours by an owner.

But we ahd to go soemwhre- not tuching our vets with a bargepole after past experience, and no other sanctuary could be located.

I was in trouble with a friend the other day, cos I commented on the RSPCA advert - offering a permanent home to your dog if you die.
I pointed out the disgusting state of our local RSPCA shelter, and asked why on earth anyone would condemn their "best friend" to a lifetime of hell - I think I also said that I would rather shoot my dog myself, rather than think it would go and live out its years in a hellhole.
She told me I had a chip on my shoulder.
If I do, it's a very tasty one

What has gone wrong with them then - why are they so useless?

Very angry at all this. Feel like cancelling my monthly £5 donation to them

I don't know why they've got such a bad reputation TBH, and probably there are far more heartwarming, succesful stories than not, but the limited experience I've had with them, they're poo.
We were handed some rescued ducklings this summer (the mother was killed) I rear chicks and ducklings, but really don't feel that I can rear wild ducklings, so rang up RSPCA - 1st time, I was given a bollocking for taking in the ducklings, as the mother may have come back (I didn't take them in, but assume as the mother was dead on the road, and the LO's crowded near her, it was a pretty fair guess that she wasn't coming back)
2nd phone call, I was told that the nearest shelter to me was in Kings Lynn. That may be the case, but I live in North Yorkshire, and I wasn't prepared to drive all that way for 6 ducklings!
I ended up sorting it out myself.
I've just spoken to a friend, who found a baby owl - she couldn't praise the RSPCA enough, and she was so excited that they had a camera crew with them when they came to collect it, and she appeared in the local news - so there's a positive story, but did they only respond because they had a crew with them, or because it wasn't a run-of-the-mill animal?
Sorry, seem to have put on my cynical hat today.

I have heard lots of dreadful stories about horses beinig kept in appalling conditions while the RSPCA 'monitor' the situation. In one case several ponies died of starvation before the RSPCA got off it's arse to do anything, despite many, many phone calls. They are wholly useless and I stopped supporting them the minute they started spending money campaigning to stop hunting.

HKT - please contact your local greyhound rescue - the Retired Greyhound Fund has a list of branches here:
www.retiredgreyhounds.co.uk/Branches/. They will help you with this. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Thankyou sardinequeen

Thankyou for the greyhound link Callisto

I have a friend who worked for a well nown animal rescue charity, she says they are not very good (the RSPCA), sahmereally, I thought they were OK until last week

The RSPB might be another option when it is ducks/birds etc. They will give you advice over the phone and send someone to collect if necessary.

Disgusted with the reports on here.

I've never had any time for the rspca.I tried to get them to rescue an abandoned dog I'd seen tied up in the middle of nowhere,but they said that they didn't get involved in that sort of thing!

They have a bad reputation around here for dumping urban foxes out in the sticks,which is downright cruel,because foxes are territorial and many urban foxes are scavengers and don't know how to hunt.A farmer we know saw a white van parked up in his gateway with cages in the back,so asked the driver what he was doing.The driver said that he was releasing foxes.The farmer protested that it was his land and what about his chickens and lambs,but the driver basically said'Well I'm from the RSPCA and there is nothing you can do about it.'He let 3 foxes go and that night all of them were in the yard,trying to get into the chicken pens,the farmer shot 2 of them there and then.
Good old RSPCA,trumpeting about the hunting ban and getting someone else to do their dirty work.They'll never get a penny from me.

called them once when property developer next door went away leaving a dog in house for the weekend.

It howled all day so about 10pm I called first they accused me of being concerned about getting to sleep
I explained I have young children and can sleep through anything in my younger days I have fallen asleep standing up at a disco

2 days later they turned up

developer had come and got dog and gone away again (he had let it about 40 hours)

then they bombarded me with leaflets asking for money!

Don't get me started on the RSPCA! We are forever catching stray dogs and rescuing injured animals and learned years ago that there is no point calling them. You could try googling for local independent rescues and ask their advice, or as I think someone else said it would have to be environmental health, but then the pups might be removed to a local authority shelter with a 7 day destruction policy.

In my experience, the RSPCA never come out. Probably my most traumatic experience involving them was at a service station on the M6 a few years ago. I witnessed a tiny kitten get driven over as it was asleep on the wheel of a parked car. It was in agony with a broken back, screaming in pain and incontinent. I called the RSPCA as I couldn't remember any other numbers. They said it was 'only a feral cat' and they didn't 'get involved with feral animals' and 'had I tried the Cats Protection League?' Oh yes, of course, I carry the phone number of every CPL local branch with me whenever I travel up the motorway (they didn't have the number to give me either). I was 8 months pregnant and very hormonal at the time and the poor little mite died in my arms in screaming agony, wrapped in a blanket I had just bought for my pfb. We took him home and buried him in our garden. I did actually say to them "I bet you'd be here like a rocket if I had a bloody camera crew with me" to which their operator retorted "we don't have to respond to that kind of attitude' and promptly hung up!

Its unbelievable when they won't come round to investigate reports like yours, when I know of an experienced dog owner who had her very loved and well looked after gsd pup 'seized' by them because she had left it in the outhouse without a blanket whilst she fetched her children from school (20 mins) because he had really bad diarrhea (which was being treated by the vet) so couldn't be left in the house and all his bedding was on the line. (She didn't get him back either and the whole family was devastated.) Apparently failing to provide suitable bedding is reason enough for them to call 'animal abuse' even if it was only for 20 mins.

Imho they are a huge multi-million pound money making machine first and an animal rescue organisation second.

Ditto to what everyone else has said. I am involved in independent rescue and the VERY vast majority of these reputable organisations distrust the RSPCA with a vengance and with good reason too. I could add reams to the other stories about their attitude and willingness to kill (the killing of the GSDs with a bolt gun is a campaign I am involved in), but it would take up pages.

Did you know that the RSPCA has over 119 MILLION pounds in the bank?

Did you know that the local branches are TOTALLY self funding, that not only do they receive NOTHING from the RSPCA HQ but also that they have to pay the HQ (on average over a thousand pounds a year), just to use the name RSPCA to help animals in distress?

My advice, from my own experience, would be to innundate the RSPCA with calls about these dogs, asking friends, relations and neighbours to call but most importantly follow this up with an email (making sure they know the exact address and postcode in advance and any pertinannt details or the RSPCA will say they can't do anything).

However you will get better advice and help no doubt from the organisations Greyhound Action, GreytExploitations (run by a wonderful lady who I know personally), and your local NO-KILL independent rescue (or any further afield). Please don't be put off by the forthright opinions of some of these - they really do know their stuff and they really do care.

To anyone who currently donates to the RSPCA I will say this - not so long ago I was contacted on the quiet by an RSPCA inspector begging me to help find a home/foster carer for a lurcher in an RSPCA centre as he was otherwise going to be killed.

His crime? Not biting a child, not being aggressive... he was just considered "too ugly" by the RSPCA to get a home and so they made the economic decision that he should die.

All too often, if you fund the RSPCA, you are paying for animals to die needlessly. If you are in any doubt, please read the article on the GSDs killed with bolt guns to see how they must have suffered.