Out of hours and no owner....

Re: Out of hours and no owner....

Clive Ansell — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:17:28 GMT

in my first job, 1996-2001, in the south Birmingham area, we used to receive many OOH calls from the RSPCA requesting someone to just pop out rescue injured strays etc.

It would be pointed out to them that they have their own hospital in the area, manned 24/7 with vn's, their own vets on call, and their own inspectorate and ambulance drivers, and they were in a better position to deal with the case than a small practice with only an on call vet - cases would be bounced back to them.

Re: Out of hours and no owner....

Bob Russell — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:00:39 GMT

The BVA are in discussion with the RSPCA with regard to the MOU and it seems that it is going to require serious review! There seem to have been so many incidents where the RSPCA seem to have 'renegued' on the MOU as we have understood it for many years. This seems to be a pattern and on the script for the call centre.

I am not the only vet in the UK that has a very low opinion of many aspects of the RSPCA and the opinion is getting lower each year. It is very sad that vets hard work (for minimal return) is supporting a very wealthy so-called charity.

Perhaps the profession should be offering automatic euthanasia in all these cases at a fixed fee starting in say 6 months time unless alternative agreement is reached. Once this gets to the Daily Mail I am confident that a healthy discussion will follow with a new agreement within that 6 months.

Re: Out of hours and no owner....

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:21:53 GMT

Contrary to popular myth we have no obligation to attend "stray" domestic animals without charge. The liability for the charge lies with the individual requesting treatment. Of course we never stick to that when a well-meaning person scoops a runover cat off the road (although some people do actually offer to pay). The point about the RSPCA arrangement was that it became the RSPCA who had requested treatment and they stated exactly what they would pay for and to what maximum. A sensible arrangement that worked well. Mr. Chadwick is not dreaming, the RSPCA undertook in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to also pay extra for an out of hours call.

The MOU is still in existence and has not been officially cancelled. However it seems that the MOU is frequently not being honoured. Speak to anyone senior in the RSPCA and, if they can be induced to give an opinion at all, it's "Oh, there must have been a misunderstanding". Yet it seems pretty plain that RSPCA call-centre staff are being trained to behave in a way that reneges upon the MOU.

As for small wild animals, it has always been customary (and it's in the Guide) to treat them without charge. However the implication as far as I am concerned is that the nature of the treatment is entirely at the veterinary surgeon's discretion. More often than not euthanasia is the appropriate action. If the member of the public wants the herring gull's broken wing fixed instead, they are going to have to pay for it. (Actually I'm not sure whether the member of the public even has the legal right to do whatever they want with a wild animal, but that's another question). The understanding with the RSPCA has always been that they would not pay for attendance upon wild animals, but they would pay an out-of-hours callout fee if the wild animal had to be seen out of hours.

There is absolutely no obligation to see a wild rabbit with myxomatosis at four in the morning. "Put it in a cardboard box, bring it to the surgery during opening hours" is a perfectly adequate and professional response. As for the swan in the canal....... politely point out that you are a veterinary practice, not a rescue service? Suggest they ring the Fire Brigade?

[quote user="Andrew Chadwick"] but with regards to the RSPCA I must say it used to feel like we could work alongside them for the overall benefit of the animals we see - that relationship (in my experience anyway) certainly seems to have changed for the worse in recent times.[/quote]

Sums it up nicely with regards to the national RSPCA.

Local branches are a different matter.