B****y RSPCA

Re: B****y RSPCA

Bob Russell — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 18:10:10 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

Today the RSPCA rang and asked how much would we charge to visit and collect a sick hedgehog from the nearest town. Told them £37 + VAT. They agreed.

Funny old world.

[/quote]

Not really. It would probably cost more to send a taxi!

Re: B****y RSPCA

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 14:29:15 GMT

Today the RSPCA rang and asked how much would we charge to visit and collect a sick hedgehog from the nearest town. Told them £37 + VAT. They agreed.

Funny old world.

Re: B****y RSPCA

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 11:22:01 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

Or those with mug stamped on their veterinary foreheads who mess them around for a bit then take the bu**ers home!

[/quote]Yeah, I've had quite a number of those, 3 at present with another kitten being raised by a nurse next in line!!

Re: B****y RSPCA

Bob Russell — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:53:39 GMT

Or those with mug stamped on their veterinary foreheads who mess them around for a bit then take the bu**ers home!

Re: B****y RSPCA

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:50:37 GMT

[quote user="ceri stewart"]Would the sneezing or limping stray be better off just being left than brought into the vets, messed around for a bit then PTS because its black, grumpy and "non-rehomeable"?[/quote]

Yes of course. Or even better, brought to the veterinary surgeon, messed about in an improving way, and then allowed to "stray" off again.

Re: B****y RSPCA

ceri stewart — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:33:44 GMT

You have to wonder whether less people would be willing to bring stray cats in to the vets under the RSPCA umbrella if they knew how many of them were PTS? Would the sneezing or limping stray be better off just being left than brought into the vets, messed around for a bit then PTS because its black, grumpy and "non-rehomeable"?

Re: B****y RSPCA

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:09:27 GMT

I honestly don't know

Wynne

Re: B****y RSPCA

Bob Russell — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:01:12 GMT

It is really sad that a number of animal charities have alienated themselves from the veterinary profession. When I qualified there was a lot of mutual respect so I wonder where it went wrong!

Re: B****y RSPCA

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:50:17 GMT

Fortunately we have a proactive local branch, although they are sometimes difficult to pin down, and Putney Hospital is not far away so the pathetic £60 offer will cover basic first aid and it can be handed over after that otherwise, I'm sure I would be tearing my hair out all the time with them as well.

The RSPCA is consciously absent from the list of charities to which I will donate the proceeds of the sales of my book (another shameless promotion!) and the RSPCA collecting box is noticeable by its absence from the waiting room.

Re: B****y RSPCA

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 11:22:14 GMT

Totally agree. I have enormous admiration and respect for individual Inspectors, but can't imagine why they need so many penpushers at their £17M Horsham headquarters

Wynne

Re: B****y RSPCA

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 11:07:27 GMT

A big problem is how the RSPCA are divided up and where the power lies. Local branches are run almost as franchises, with their own remit for gathering and spending funds. Inspectors (on the most part) are decent people trying to help animals where they can.

As I've mentioned before, I've just been moved to a new branch next to an RSPCA Shelter and am doing all the work for them. They had a rather substantial grant available to develop one of their buildings into a reptile centre to take on case or signed over reptiles, as there isn't really a specialised place for these RSPCA cases to go.

They also wanted to use our practice as a triage centre, similar to how currently inspectors take all animals to the local RSPCA hosptial (GMAH in Salford...) for a health check, then have to go back down to Salford to collect them and take them to a rehoming centre. This would save hours in travelling time and huge amounts in fuel costs. The shelter manager and trustees had spent a long time producing a proposal for all this, including asking for more than 99p per night for reptile boarding charges.

Regional RSPCA replied to an email inviting them to a meeting to discuss the plans in quite a snotty way, saying there was no authority to do such things and no decisions could be made at the moment due to recent changes in management.

The people on the ground dealing with the public are alright. It's the people in the offices/call centres that are the problem.

Re: B****y RSPCA

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:47:31 GMT

If they hadn't prosecuted that evil person for starving those poor poor Staffies - then nobody would. The police certainly wouldn't bother - although we pay taxes for them to bother. Other evil people would then know that they could get away with starving animals. Did the magistrates issue a summons for the defendant to appear?

Wynne

Re: B****y RSPCA

Andrew Mellor — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:11:02 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

Can anyone remember when the £60 came in? I'm sure it must have been that amount for ~10 years.....

[/quote]

More like 15 years and we wont ever get that amount. The phone operatives are now given no authority and we cannot go higher in most cases. If an inspector comes to us with anything other than a potential prosecution we have to phone up and get authorisation not the inspector. And if we say convenia was given because it last 14 days so tablets would need to be given they wont pay for it as it is more than initial emergency treatment !

But they take someone to court over 2 staffies found long long dead in his flat death by starvation etc ( adult male staffie average size weighed 7 kg) and he played them all the way costing court time etc then never turned up . So they payed for my locum i had hired for the day but only after i had written a letter including a copy of my contract with him and his invoice etc Sorry starting to rant now!

Re: B****y RSPCA

serena holmes — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 19:41:50 GMT

Sounds to me like a Calici positive as well as an FIV positive cat to me, an FME(and obviously castration) and an indoor home could have been all that was required for a content cat and zero risk to others.

Re: B****y RSPCA

Michael Woodhouse — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 18:05:51 GMT

Can anyone remember when the £60 came in? I'm sure it must have been that amount for ~10 years.....

Re: B****y RSPCA

Bob Russell — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 11:55:11 GMT

We were much better off with the old RSPCA. They have always guarded their finances well but nothing wrong with that.

Now they pretend to be the protectors of animal welfare but fail to deliver.

Time for the inspectors arm of the charity to be removed from the rest of the charity.

Re: B****y RSPCA

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 11:17:44 GMT

I still think animals would be far far worse off without the RSPCA The ones I'm really angry with are the police - who are themselves breaking the law when they refuse to prosecute animal crime - especially as prosecuting animal crime is one of less than ten things I think it moral for taxpayers money to be spent on.

Wynne

Re: B****y RSPCA

ruths — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 10:59:52 GMT

It's so frustrating

Re: B****y RSPCA

An On MRCVS — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 10:44:08 GMT

Cat positive for FIV, so PTS'd this morning. The inspector had to drive up to the centre to get the snap test done. And as the charity won't pay for communal cremation, he has to drive back down to pick up the cat, return with it and then come back to his patch to continue working. It will have taken about six hours, which even minus fuel costs would come to about - ooh - sixty quid.

(Obviously, we'd keep the cat in the freezer till he was passing, but the work order requires that it be done today)

Re: B****y RSPCA

james herriot lied — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 10:22:46 GMT

If I've got the OP right, Wynne, in this case the RSPCA would order a (more or less) healthy cat to be put to sleep for the want of a single penny - sixty quid, all good; sixty quid and a penny, goodbye to the cat. Is that so different?

Having worked for charities, I know well how each penny has to be accounted for - and also where money simply cannot be spent if it's at odds with the charity 's remit - but here I see the RSPCA absolutely in the camp of 'deadbeat owner'. With a side order of completely unrealistic expectations.

Is it irresponsible to 'rescue' a cat if you don't have the funds to treat it? If the RSPCA's approach leads to under-treatment by vets who want to do something for the patient other than euthanasia, would the RSPCA be open to prosecution for failing to ensure that animals under its care do not suffer unnecessarily? Having to miss a few days of meloxicam over a cost quibble would appear to be quite unnecessary to me, and emotionally blackmailing decent vets into providing free treatments to cover the RSPCA's shortfall in responsibility isn't going to cut it in the long run.

Dealing with them is becoming routinely depressing: they are among the worst owners we see (although I absolutely stress that the local inspectors are wonderful people, who we've seen in tears of frustration over the direction of the charity).

Re: B****y RSPCA

Utlendigur — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 10:16:47 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]At this level the reality is they don't want the cat, don't want to spend any money at all[/quote]

Which, ironically, is what they often prosecute members of the public over when someone has a pet and fails to seek/refuses veterinary advice...

Re: B****y RSPCA

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 10:06:36 GMT

On the other hand,the police, despite a statutory duty to investigate/prosecute all crime won't do a thing to evil people who ill-treat animals. I nearly broke my heart when I read about poor Kit - a perfectly healthy horse killed becaus the owner wouldn't pay livery fees up front - only £30. The RSPCA are the ones prisecuting the evil people who did this - unfortuneately, their punishment will be far far too lenient.

Wynne

Re: B****y RSPCA

Bob Russell — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 09:43:38 GMT

I have a limited hope that some changes will occur at the top of the organisation. An independent report of their prosecution policies has been extremely critical.

At this level the reality is they don't want the cat, don't want to spend any money at all and are more interested in the state of their bank account than the state of a patient!

Formulate a letter to the local paper, replacing RSPCA with 'the best known animal charity' (or just leave it in). Put all of the above in and copy it to the RSPCA. See them jump and stand to attention!

I would probably not send it to the paper but prepare it as therapy!

The only time we seem to get any action from the RSPCA is when there is possible publicity in the offing!

There are plenty of much better pet charities to support IMO!