Category: Animal Charities

Love them or hate them we need the RSPCA

RSPCA should aim to go back to basics.

The RSPCA are in the process of closing some of their animal shelters, hospitals and clinics and allegedly making at least ten percent of their administration and front line staff redundant according to Society statements and media reports. This has obviously caused alarm and distress to their staff and several Change.org petitions have been started which are already attracting many signatures. It could be viewed as a knee jerk reaction to the present financial climate caused by the pandemic, but it could be just an opportune time to restructure the charity once again.

We seem to have a love hate relationship with the RSPCA, as many do with the Police, and there will always be sections of society and organisations happy to criticise and who want to reign them in but in the interests of all the abused animals of England and Wales we cannot do without them. This is because they are the only agency or charity actively trying to prevent abuse before it happens and taking 0ver 90% of all animal cruelty prosecutions.

RSPCA have always been evolving and restructuring

The RSPCA throughout its history, and particularly in the last fifty years, has always adapted to changing society needs, circumstances and attitudes whether financial or not. I have been involved with the Society on and off since 1970 and have seen it all before. Back then there was only one hospital and that was a converted house, the only animal shelters within striking distance of London were the Mayhew Home and Southall cattery.

At the end of the sixties the Society still owned hundreds of houses in which their inspectors lived, answered their own phones, organised there own day, were part of the community, had kennels and cages in the back garden to temporarily hold animals and were virtually on 24 hour call. Then to meet financial and changing society needs they were all sold, call centres were introduced and the inspectorate was regionalised.

Throughout the seventies they closed dozens of “one man clinics” in the poorer areas of London like the east end, south and north London or like the Mayhew Home transferred them to other charities. They closed their central night emergency service to much outcry that had provided vital rescue and treatment services during the city’s impoverished decades. Even their grand headquarters building in Jermyn Street was closed, sold and demolished when the Society relocated to the countryside.

In the next few decades they continued to adapt their services introducing animal collection drivers and animal welfare officers to take some of the workload off inspectors. The Society and its Branch animal shelters took fewer unwanted pets from owners and concentrated on homing those animals seized or collected by their staff. The Society has always changed to meet present demands.

The RSPCA sometimes loses sight of its roots

Along the way no doubt the Society has made mistakes particularly when they have lost sight of their roots and core objectives and insisted on establishing a department for everything connected with animal welfare rather than concentrating on what they do best. It seems they are beginning to realise this and are leaving certain aspects to the dozens of other charities who carry out similar work such as the Cats Protection and Dogs Trust who rehome animals and those that treat animals of the poor like the PDSA and Blue Cross. The RSPCA fulfills a unique and important role that no other charity dares to get involved in and that is protecting and preventing animals from ill-treatment and they must concentrate on this.

It is always terrible for people to lose their livelihood and the work they thoroughly enjoy and believe in but unfortunately times and circumstances change. But hopefully the Society will in the future avoid decreasing their front line activities as without adequate services more animals will undoubtedly suffer. They have always managed to survive controversy, criticism, upturns and downturns and they hopefully they will continue to do so because there are so many animals out there that depend on them.

Related Articles:

Memories of the RSPCA London Night Emergency Service 1936-76.
Proactive Animal Charities Under Attack.
Paranoia over RSPCA powers.

Foreign rescue dogs not to blame for U.K adoption shortfall.

One of the many arguments put forward against the adoption of dogs from foreign lands is that it delays or takes away the chance of a home grown unwanted dog finding a home quickly. But this argument is a bit of a fallacy as it is more to do with our fickle and selfish approach to choosing a dog that results in at least 40,000 dogs remaining on the shelves at UK rescues centres each year. Unfortunately there are too few people looking to acquire or adopt for the right reasons i.e. providing a new life for a disadvantaged dog regardless of its aesthetic appeal, pedigree or the trend of the moment. Until we change our adoption preferences charities will never be able to easily find homes for every dog in their care.

One large UK dog charity admits they receive 13,000 applications annually but never have enough numbers of the desired types to meet this demand because most applicants are holding out for a particular breed or type. It is virtually impossible to persuade these potential adopters to ignore their preferred choice in favour of a nondescript stray that doesn’t appeal. Foreign strays have the edge over those that are overlooked because human nature being what it is we cannot resist a sad story and foreign rescues are perceived to be the saddest of all. But if you look at the figures involved in reality there should be more than enough potential owners to keep both sides of the foreign import argument happy.

Rescue sector only provides a small percentage of demand

The UK dog rescue sector only fulfils a small percentage of the annual demand for dogs and puppies and foreign rescues even less. I am no mathematician but looking at the numbers logically, the UK has an estimated dog population of 9 million and if you accept that the average lifespan of a dog is probably 11 years it means the UK requires a minimum of 820,000 puppies and dogs just to replenish those that die of old age. It has been variously estimated that 130,000 dogs are handed into UK animal charities as unwanted annually and if you accept their published success rates, 90,000 (70%) are probably rehomed. This leaves up to 40,000 less desirable ones remaining.

Even if 100% of UK unwanted dogs and thousands more foreign rescues were found homes each year they would still only satisfy a fraction of the demand. Therefore there should be room in the market to satisfy everyone in the rescue industry but it requires all dog lovers to play their part by not viewing dogs as accessories and lowering their exacting standards in choosing a dog.

The situation is similar in other countries such as the USA and Canada where the rescue market only provides a fraction of the demand but there is also opposition to foreign imports.

It is commercially bred dog and puppy imports that are causing the most problems not rescue dogs and this is the area where curtailment could be considered which would increase demand for more dogs from the rescue sector. Better still the ideal answer is to have a more responsible attitude to dog ownership and avoid dogs going into care in the first place.

Rescuing dogs from abroad – does it make sense?
Animal Rescue intake policies explained