not happy at all with the RSPCA

[kittyatmyfoot]

we live in a semi rural area and recently my neighbor found a cat in full labour in her garden shed, cat went on to have 7 beautiful kittens, the cat had a collar on but no tag so neighbor placed cat and kittens in a box and took them inside she phoned the nearest Cats protection and was told they were full and to contact the RSPCA which she did and was horrified to be told that yes she could bring the cat and kittens down to them but they would have to put them to sleep as they are inundated with cats and kittens!!!...is this normal for the RSPCA i always thought they never put a healthy animal down??...

the rspca will put animals down if they can't be rehomed, I think. its the dogs trust that never puts a healthy dog down.

It's all down to money isn't it. Unfortunately.

If your neighbour still has the cat she Gould take her to the vet to see if she's micro chipped.

im taking the cat to my vet on monday to see if she is micro chipped and to advertise her as found......so if anyone knows of a missing tortie black and ginger with very light ginger line down her nose wearing pale green collar with silver fish on in the cambridgeshire/norfolk borders then please pm me....

the RSPCA are less than useless nowadays only interested in publicity cases OP go onto catchat.org website this will bring up all the local to you rescues, the one i work at has had to sadly say we cant take any more in for the moment as all our foster carers are either full up or on holiday, even cute georgous kittens are harder to rehome this year than last year i hate having to tell people we cant help them this week

Sounds about right for the RSPCA tbh.

Worked for RSPCA years ago. Not my favourite animal charity. Agree with them being publicity orientated. They were rubbish at thinking about their staff.

But...

If they haven't got room what are they supposed to do? I wish people would neuter their animals. Too many unwanteds in rehoming centres.

lou its the fact that they would put down a perfectly healthy mom and 7 yes 7 new born kittens how can they have policies like that this is not america where thousands of animals get PTS every day just to make room for the next intake, breaks my heart,

yes people should neuter, all four of my cats are done 3 boys 1 girl and non of them have ever fathered or mothered kittens, but sadly there are too many breeders, too many ignorant people i dont know what the answer is

maybe if more vets neutered younger than six months which is when some female cats can get pregnant it may go someway towards the problem , or if say the RSPCA were to use some of thier billions of pounds in funds to provide free neutering for everyone not just people on benefits more people would neuter

I have a rescue cat from a small rescue on the Norfolk/cambs border (outsell). A lady runs it on her own from her small holding so it is a small outfit but she may help. Do you want the contact details?

OutWell not outsell!

I would keep them all but my husband would have a fit!! Both my cats have been neutered( the vet did them for free if they they go to a good home) and I also have one of them chipped. Tiger is to stupid to go more then 5 cms away from me if we are outside!!!!!!!

issey6cats If the RSPCA haven't got room what suggestions do you have? It can't be right to keep happily accepting peoples rejects and diluting the amount of care and funds for the ones that you are officialy able to have. I'm not sure the council would allow extra animals on site as I think you have to be licenced for numbers. Do you suggest they put other cats down to make room for yours?

I think you had a great idea that the RSPCA would do more good by neutering anyone's dogs and cats perhaps as an amnesty gesture. They have LOADS of money in the kitty (pardon the pun)

lou i did say i dont know what the answer is, i work at a small rescue myself and this week we have had to turn people away calling us about stray moms with kittens as all our foster carers are full themselves it was the hardest thing to say can you look after the cats for a couple of weeks and maybe we will be able to help then,

but last year when the RSPCA decided not to take in unwanted and stray cats only cruelty cases (which sometimes get pts anyway when they have won the case ) they put a massive strain on other rescues we have rehomed over 300 cats and kittens so far this year and there are over 100 in foster care and 500 on the waiting list, its worse this year than any year in 15 years that we have been running

lou thier not my cat and kittens they are OPs neighbours

Sorry issey I lost the thread there when I said "your" cats. I was speaking generally.

I suppose the RSPCA had too many cruelty cases to cope with unwanteds. I think they have to keep them alive until after the court case as they're evidence and the RSPCA don't actually own them as they haven't been signed over to them by a judge. British legal system (tut)

Again I wish people would neuter so that people like yourself and the RSPCA didn't have to take responsibility for the unwanteds.

I disagree. The RSPCA are not worse than useless. The difficulty is that there really is no space in animal rescue centres, foster homes, smaller charities, etc, because cats/dogs/small animals are not being neutered.
It's incredibly sad and frustrating. It also makes me unbelievably angry that charities get slated when they struggle to cope because of people's inability to show one shred of responsibility when taking on a pet.
And I say all this as a person getting ready to feed two 2-week old kittens that were dumped separately and brought in to an animal charity.

Where are you OP? There might be mumsnetters who would adopt them.

Sorry, you've already said. Ignore me. :)

the rspca are shit :( cats protection are far superior.

elatal good luck with your hand reared babies my biscuit was dumped in a carrier bag in a park with his siblings at ten days old and thank god for the lady who hand reared him he is now about 6kgs of hooligan cat and i love him to bits

Did You have any luck at the vet kitty ?

I'm afraid I agree. I've been a member of the RSPCA for nearly 20 years, but after an incident last year (I rang about a cat that was being mistreated by a neighbour) my attitude has completely changed. They were totally disinterested.

Cats Protection are fantastic. I would also recomment the CatChat website too. Good luck.

Any update on this?

cant stop thinking about this poor kitty and her wee babies.

OP do come back and let us know

I had the same reaction from the RSPCA (well the SSPCA I'm North of the border) with the cat I rehomed a few weeks ago

I didn't think she was happy and hissed and spat and scratched, and called them for advice thinking I might have to rehome her and their response was 'we'll take her but she'll be put to sleep'

I think the RSPCA and SSPCA are too money orientated, and don't actually do what it says on the tin i.e look after animals welfare . I may be jaded though given my interaction with them.

The cat's protection league on the other hand where fantastic , very understanding and gave me lots of advice and encouraged my to persevere which we did.

Some of the big charities are not in it for love just money

Hope you find the owners [owners]

I think the RSPCA are terrible aswell, I had to ring them last week as our 8mo boy was missing and when we were posting flyers a lady told us she heard a cat crying behind her garden we heard him and thought he was in neighbours shed trapped as they were on holiday. I rang rspca and was told to find him first and ring back, rang back was on hold for 14 minutes! and then asked a hundred questions about area etc and was told someone would ring back soon.
In the meantime we were v worried as he had stopped crying and had been missing for 3 days when the weather had been roasting everyday, our v kind neighbours helped rescue him :) and rspca appeared at 2.30pm the day after!