RSPCA - What do you think?

""""The RSPCA are a joke who hide behind the welfare of animals when the truth is they have their own agenda and this has little to do with ensuring animals recieve the best care at the earliest oppertunity.""""""

I wish I could clone you and put you on TV all over the world. Just change the initials of the organization and it would be the same message all over the world.

I am glad your friend's dog is doing well.

The RSPCA are great, just so long as there is a camera crew on standby!!

They seem to be more interested with their image than with animal welfare.

Four years ago I bought a Greyhound from them, she had been rescued from a man who was keeping 70 dogs in a .two bedroomed house. The dogs had become a huge feral pack and my little ***** was at the bottom of the heap, the others used to beat her up and steal her food. She was very nervous, not house or lead trained, didn't respond in any way to kindness or in fact to anything.

When I first saw her she was sitting in the back of a kennel shaking with fright. I was informed that she had been in kennels for 6 months whilst the prosecution of her owner was pending. During that time there had been no attempt by RSPCA staff to rehabilitate her in any way. All that they had done was shunt her to various RSPCA kennels aound the country to try and get her rehomed.

My own vet, when she first saw her, said that the kindest thing to do with her was have her put down as she would never respond like a normal dog.

I didn't take that advice, but I had to get her away from the RSPCA's clutches, how can they keep a dog for that long and do nothing to try and rehabilitate her so that she could be rehomed.

I've still got my Greyhound, she's 12 now and she plays with the other dogs and with me, she loves her walks and her treats. House training is still a bit of an issue and she is still terrified of men and people she doesn't know.

Your friend does not seem to have taken consideration of this overall. Also did your friend not see fit to get insurance for this pedigree dog? The RSPCA is primarily an organisation to enforce cruelty laws and rehome animals not a source of funding. The RSPCA rely on donations and so do not have much money to offer for funding. And yes they are hellbent on neutering animals but this is due to the many unresonsible owners who breed their dogs without thinking it through. A dog past its prime should be neutered by default anyway as this reduces the risk of infections and cancer. As for funding for operations goes that is the PDSA's job but not the RSPCA's hence the PDSA were willing to cover the costs.

Personally I think both these organisations have gone downhill. The RSPCA seems to be concentrating more on campaigning for better legislation than previously. And the PDSA don't give a damn if it's not a dog or a cat. I know this from the cold way we were treated when one of our guinea pigs died at just 2 months old. Within 4 hours of showing the first signs, standing with quivering flanks, she threw herself down the cage in convulsions and within seconds was dead. We phoned the emergency line as the sypmtoms showed that there was an internal hereditary deformity which meant the other one could have it as they were sisters. They reacted by saying 'This number is for emergencies'. Luckily the other didn't have the fault but the vet showed no sympathy when we said she was dead when she asked why they weren't both in.

The RSPCA have never had any respect in our area as they won't deal with anything in our area. We get 'Oh that's not in our area' when we call up a center. Because the nearest RSPCA centre to us is Great Ayton and rather a long way away. We found a stray dog and they didn't want to know cos it was too far.

And as for whoever complained about the RSPCA taking funding from organisations carrying out animal experimentation and the rest of the comment. The animals used for this in the UK often lead shorter but happier lives than many pets. They are kept as stress free and pain free as could ever be possible. Stress and pain after all mess up the results. The RSPCA does not actively endorse them but is going after higher priorities where animals are permanently suffering for extensive periods of time. Such as circuses. And the only reason they speak against people 'who go after' the experiment people is because they are generalising like most people do. They are assuming they are all activists.

Activism gets nowhere. Compare Rosa Parks with Black Panthers. Which of these two contributed the most to the Black Rights Movement? The Black Panthers went around using violence and induced fear and hatred and so got nowhere. Rosa Parks with her peaceful protest induced pity and sympathy and resulted in the revolutionary boycott.

A true welfarist (if that's a word) uses petitioning, campaigning (leaflets, posters), lobbying and peaceful protest. Activists are normally the ones in the news though as they are a better news story being violent and desicrating bodies etc. Campaigning against animal experimentation gets bad press as people automatically assume those involved are activists. So until the activism problem is sorted I think we should prioritise.

i live in scotland so we dont have the rspca, we have sspca and ive had dealings with them twice. once i saw a cat being knocked down by a car and phoned, they came out and took the cat to a vets where it was treated and then reunited with its owner and the second time a cat was attacked by a dog.

the sspca inspector for the area was over 30 miles away at the time of my call but asked if i could possibly phone a local vet and take the cat there and they would cover all bills.

i did however lose interest in the rspca when i watched a program( may have been pet rescue or similar) and the rspca spent a lot of money on rescuing a seagull which would then have to be looked after for the rest of its life, the bird should just have been put to sleep. there are better things they could have spent that money on.

Well, I live in Swindon, which is a very large town, but we had no RSPCA officer for years, the nearest one was Bath, my dear friend was the dog warden of Swindon for many years, and had no time at all for the RSPCA, she felt they never came out when they were needed, and any animal she had to attend to, she took to either a local sanctary, or she would drive 40 miles to the nearest Blue Cross shelter, if the local pound could not find the owner, I have had no good experience with the RSPCA, local children found an injured cat once, they told their school, who phoned the RSPCA, but they did nothing, I went and got the vet, who took it back to the surgery, and had to put it to sleep, the children had been waiting for an RSPCA officer for 40 minutes, then I got there, got the vet etc etc, still no sign of them, bloody useless, it seems unless there are cameras there they cant be bothered.

I have heard simalar story's regarding the rspca.Although i cant comment on much as i have personally had no dealings with them,i can tell a quick story about a case i heard.A woman was travelling back home one night with her husband when they spotted a dog on the grass verge, being animal lovers they stopped and checked the dog over to see whether it had a collar etc, it didn't.The dog was a boxer cross and was extremely thin,flea ridden and dehydrated.The couple put him in there car and decided they would phone the rspca to come and collect him.The rspca were quick to inform them that could do nothing about the dog as they had no proof that it was a stray, even though the poor dog clearly was.They were quite abrupt with the desperate couple and simply told them to contact the local police station as it was there responsibility.To cut the story short the couple took the dog to the police,were they were also told to go back to the rspca...obviously they didn't and the dog remained in the police station over night.The dog did recover eventually and was rehomed but defiantly not by the rspca.I have worked in a rescue center [not rspca] and i have been often shocked at the things that go on behind the scenes and how members of staff tell owners completly different things.I'm glad to hear your friends dog is well.

I must admit, I have taken several friends to the RSPCA with their various pets and totally agree with what you were saying. I myself would always go to the PDSA in preference as they do seem to care more for the animals welfare than having them neutered. In fact, last time I went, they didn't even have set fees at the PDSA, you just paid what you could afford, which I suppose leaves them open to rip off merchants! Glad the dogs ok though!

I hve some sort of sympathy for your friend because anyone can fall on hard times and in can be devastating for a pet when treatment can be the difference between misery, a good quality of life, or even life and death itself. I would urge anyone though on getting an animal, to think very carefully about how long that animal will be with you - 13 or more years hopefully and how much you will have to spend during that time to keep your pet - not only food, but vet costs, injections for a start. Please, please, do think of taking out pet insurance, it can be a life saver - and I mean for the animal, not for the person. Too many animals are neglected or abandoned simply because a person cannot afford vet bills. Most people have insurance for themselves, house, car, etc. make pet insurance a priority too.

I also have never had any luck in securing help from the RSPCA regarding abused/ neglected or stray and injured animals I have come across over many years. They seem to have turned in a huge adminstrative wheel now. The real benefits to animals are on a far smaller scale than the number of offices and admin staff they employ!

I don't bother donating or contacting them any more and support charities like Wood Green Animal Shelters and PDSA and the Blue Cross now.

the pdsa treat animals also the dog warden at your local council office help with neutered i went to the rspca for a dog i was told my husband would have to be there to i told them he was bedridden and ask if they could do a home visit i was told no i brought a puppy for 100 pounds she is 8 now and loved to bits i told the rspca what i thought of them i got a letter back to say they would change ther rules