Really upset with RSPCA

crystaltipps

And i now have another reason to not like the RSPCA. Honestly - some people. Does Mandy think her reaction here will be generating support for her organisation? Or more donations?

With friends like that...........

meritaten

Mandy_557 wrote: »

As you point out about the strays, what you dont complain about is just how many strays there are and WHO puts those poor animals onto the streets. You have all said just how bad the RSPCA are, well if there wasnt any cruel and very unkind people in the world they wouldnt be needed. These are my personal feelings and im not representing the RSCPA as stated by one person on here. As you all have such strong feelings about them, why dont you set up a forum about how to make things better instead of just agreeing how bad they are. Racyred, why dont you put a thread on here about the lout who put hamsters in microwaves to see them blown up, he thought it would be a laugh, or the dog who was starved to death, cats that are burnt, tortured and left to die painful deaths. My feelings are strong about these things as ive seen with my own eyes the cruelty some people will do, and just how grateful animals are to be rescued and looked after. The newspapers do not make us look too good, i agree. But they fail to report about the helpers who work hands on, who on seeing animals being brought into the shelter being taken home by them and being nursed in a caring loving home and not put into kennels etc as the animal could not cope in that enviroment. As you cannot tell my tone of typing i would like to point out that im just stating my opinion and not trying to upset anyone on here.

Mandy, as some of us have said - its not people like yourself who are the real HEART of the RSPCA we are critisising! please hun, stop taking this as a personal attack! many people on here have hightlighted cases of abuse, and many people have also helped enormously when animals have gone missing, or pets have problems! we know that the grass roots staff are poorly paid and totally commited to the animals in thier care!!! we are NOT stupid!
BUT, many of us have had problems with the RSPCA in the past and quite frankly we think their new policies STINK!
I dont know about other posters, but my charity money goes to 'Dogs Trust' because I do not agree with putting unadoptable animals down. and the other issues with the RSPCA I have had (it wasnt just the two poor dogs in the garage!
When the RSPCA stops putting healthy dogs and cats down then I will put money in their collection boxes - until then, they dont get a penny from ME!

lostinrates

Mandy_557 wrote: »

As you point out about the strays, what you dont complain about is just how many strays there are and WHO puts those poor animals onto the streets.

Yes, people here do complain about that. What's more, within the remit of a forum many do take action; many posters in these forums help people consider ''whims'' to get a new pet or not, and direct them to appropriate rescues or help when they can't handle them anymore. I have seen threads where someone says ''I want a cat'' and regular posters pull up a thread from the same poster saying they need to rehome a pet. This all adds to pressure not to, but more than that, continued social pressure to be more responsible

You have all said just how bad the RSPCA are, well if there wasnt any cruel and very unkind people in the world they wouldnt be needed.

ALL of us didn't say the RSPCA are bad....but this sort of response reinforces what I was trying to gently suggest in my previous post.

These are my personal feelings and im not representing the RSCPA as stated by one person on here.

That person was me. When you said ''I work for the RSPCA'' you were backing up your post with experience. That's commendable. But it made you representative of them in the same way a school uniform does for children.

As you all have such strong feelings about them, why dont you set up a forum about how to make things better instead of just agreeing how bad they are.

I believe some posters here have made much more commitment to animal welfare than that! Some are involved in rescue, and I stated I had professional involvement with animal welfare in the past. I understand the stresses and the strains and the dramas and I also, now, understand the perspective. I also know that this type of publicity, that you are adding to continues to damage the cause of furthering animal welfare.

Racyred, why dont you put a thread on here about the lout who put hamsters in microwaves to see them blown up, he thought it would be a laugh, or the dog who was starved to death, cats that are burnt, tortured and left to die painful deaths. My feelings are strong about these things as ive seen with my own eyes the cruelty some people will do, and just how grateful animals are to be rescued and looked after.

Again, I applaud you for your commitment, but suggest that you are not the only one, nor is the RSPCA the only organisation, who is witness to such atrocity. Those you are singling out are, I believe, also forces for good in animal welfare.

The newspapers do not make us look too good, i agree. But they fail to report about the helpers who work hands on, who on seeing animals being brought into the shelter being taken home by them and being nursed in a caring loving home and not put into kennels etc as the animal could not cope in that enviroment.

No they don't fail to report good. The RSPCA is most often sought as the voice of animal welfare. In addition there are tv shows about animal rescue in which RSPCA is applauded for its work, and it must be one of the most well known animal rescues of all. I shouldn't be surprised if it ranks among the most high in bequeaths and donations too, its press is not so bad,

As you cannot tell my tone of typing i would like to point out that im just stating my opinion and not trying to upset anyone on here.

Your opinion furthers the discussion and is welcome and beneficial. I similarly do not with to upset you, but I would repeat the sentiment of my first post as my opinion is further reinforced with this sort of post.

I wish you well and will not post anymore in this thread.

rak2

I think the RSPCA do a great job under difficult circumstances. They don't always get it right and they can't help everyone. But thank goodness they are there.

For the OP, can I just say that in the early 90's I rented a house and a cat was always hanging around, wanting to come in at all times of the day and night. It had a collar. I was friendly but not too friendly as I thought it had a home to go to.
The time came when I was going to move and as the cat hung around my house so much I decided to try and contact the owner to check if she ever went home.
I put a note in her collar and registered her in the found book at the vets three months before I was due to move. No one ever called me. I went round neighbours houses and asked if they knew who the cat belonged to. Many of them knew her but didn't know were she lived.The note was never removed from the collar, so I took the cat with me. We had a very happy ten years together and I hope she led a contented life with me. (she always came back so I guess she did)

Fast forward to 2008 I had a similar experience with another cat who just wanted to come and live with me. She didn't look like a stray but I never found who she belonged to. Now she's part of the family.


I hope you don't think I steal cats though, I already had three when the latest one took up residence , I really didn't need another and I really tried to find out where she came from. I just wanted you to know that it's entirely possible that your beloved cat got lost somewhere but is now curled up in front of some other cat lover's fire.

blackqueen

GemJar, I am SO sorry to hear about your missing pet. It is very distressing - I've been in that position myself as my cat wasn't microchipped. She did turn up a few days later in the local RSPCA shelter, where she had been well cared for. Cats do wander though so please don't give up hope. I also found a cat and managed to catch her and took her to the RSPCA and luckily she did have a microchip and was able to be returned to her owner, but she'd been missing quite a while apparently and had wandered a fair distance from home! So there is still hope. But do register your loss on as many pet loss websites as you can because you may strike lucky and at least you'd feel you were doing something positive to get your much-loved furry back.

I also work for a local RSPCA and I can't condone what they did there, it was wrong and I would never support that. It would have come from a call centre and be something to do with head office.

I can assure you that as a local animal shelter, even though we come under the RSPCA, we would have never done that to you. What many people probably don't realise is that money donated to the RSPCA as a whole goes to head office and not your local animal shelter unless you specifically give it to them. That is the case with us, we come under the RSPCA but that's almost just in name only because we receive no funding from head office and have to raise all the funds to run our shelter ourselves (current costs are about £9000 a week!). We are run by a voluntary committee of trustees - many of whom are very elderly and retired and incredibly dedicated.

I also wanted to point out that not all RSPCA branches are the same - we run our shelter OUR way, the way our Committee of Trustees want it run and so long as it is within the broad outlines of the RSPCA, we are left alone to run it how we feel is best. In our case, that means we most certainly do NOT put down healthy animals at our shelter if they are difficult to home, we keep them for as long as it takes to find a new home. Our Trustees would never allow it to be ANY other way.

We had a cat her for well over a year whilst we got her dieted and back into tip-top feline shape but she eventually got the new home she deserved and she is happy and healthy and we are all as pleased as punch that it worked out. Our last current long-stay cat was with us nearly 8 months before she found a home - we knew she would in time, she just needed time. The same goes for our dogs. We have specialist dog behaviourists who work with them to make sure they are ready for a home environment, no matter what they might have gone through before.

We do also take in strays, although space is very very limited and sometimes there is a waiting list, but we will always find room rather than turn a needy animal away.

I know it's not much to say this, but I can assure you that I would NEVER work for and support an animal shelter that puts down healthy animals because it's too much bother to rehome them. I couldn't live with myself if I did. I can't speak for other shelters - RSPCA or any other charities, only my own - and we are definitely NO KILL! Most of us at my local shelter have at least a couple of animals, all of whom have come through our shelter and we have taken them in because the public didn't want them - the dogs with odd habits and behavioural problems (!), the 3-legged cat, the cat with no ears, older cats and dogs that people pass by because they'd rather have a younger one.

I know this isn't helping you in your particular case GemJar and I still agree that you getting a cold call like that was wrong, but I just wanted to put the record a little straighter if I can for anyone reading this. Sometimes it's hard doing what we do, seeing what we see, when you get such negative press and it's not about us as a local animal shelter, but about the main RSPCA. So you see, if you think you know the RSPCA, please look closely at your local branch - what goes on at HQ is not what I see every day at our little shelter.

Sorry for my terribly long post...

RacyRed

Mandy_557 wrote: »

As you point out about the strays, what you dont complain about is just how many strays there are and WHO puts those poor animals onto the streets. You have all said just how bad the RSPCA are, well if there wasnt any cruel and very unkind people in the world they wouldnt be needed. These are my personal feelings and im not representing the RSCPA as stated by one person on here. As you all have such strong feelings about them, why dont you set up a forum about how to make things better instead of just agreeing how bad they are. Racyred, why dont you put a thread on here about the lout who put hamsters in microwaves to see them blown up, he thought it would be a laugh, or the dog who was starved to death, cats that are burnt, tortured and left to die painful deaths. My feelings are strong about these things as ive seen with my own eyes the cruelty some people will do, and just how grateful animals are to be rescued and looked after. The newspapers do not make us look too good, i agree. But they fail to report about the helpers who work hands on, who on seeing animals being brought into the shelter being taken home by them and being nursed in a caring loving home and not put into kennels etc as the animal could not cope in that enviroment. As you cannot tell my tone of typing i would like to point out that im just stating my opinion and not trying to upset anyone on here.

Mandy, I'm involved in animal rescue.

I do care. And that is why I feel so betrayed by the actions of RSPCA head office.

I'm really not trying to upset you, but it has to be faced that some of the greatest critics of the RSPCA are those who also work in animal rescue.

I want the contributions I make to be used to home and feed an animal, not help pay for some advertising director's next Porsche. I am sorry if that offends, but it is the truth and I sincerly wish it wasn't.

Edited to add. While I refuse to contribute to head office, local rescues with no kill policies, RSPCA or not, have first call on any spare (and not so spare) cash I have.

rak2

Hello blackqueen, thanks for reminding me, I also took both "found" cats to the vets to see if they were chipped and they weren't.

Thanks for the work you do with strays too. It's interesting you say about the older cats. I've adopted three older cats (not at the same time!) and After taking a little while to get to know them, I fell in love with them as much as I did with my younger cats.
I figure a lot of people want kittens or young cats, give the oldies a chance.

blackqueen

Hi RacyRed - thank you. You are saying exactly what a lot of us at the local shelters say too. We DO care about the animals and none of us have posh cars, fancy offices (really, you should see where I work, lol!!!) - because everything goes on the animals.

But isn't it awful that people don't know the difference or the distinction between RSPCA HQ and RSPCA local animal shelter? I didn't till I recently came here to work and it shocked me that the money goes there and we don't get any of it.

I just wanted people to realise that we are not "them", despite the name above the door and the branding. If I can help just one person understand that, and they can go and tell one more, we're on the right track and maybe then people can look a little more kindly on the RSPCA - BUT on those of us working tirelessly for animals in YOUR neighbourhood. We're quite nice really, honest.

Rak2 - I'm so glad someone else is a supporter of the older cat - me too! My current love is a 14 year old gorgeous tortie who was 9 when I adopted her from our shelter and she had been with them for 5 months and was being overlooked. She's a lot less hassle than my 3 year old cat who's naughty and mischevious. My old gal just wants to sleep and be loved - it can't be any easier than that, eh?

Thanx for listening everyone - and I only came on here to find out the best way to save money on contact lenses, lol.

xxx

RacyRed

blackqueen wrote: »

Hi RacyRed - thank you. You are saying exactly what a lot of us at the local shelters say too. We DO care about the animals and none of us have posh cars, fancy offices (really, you should see where I work, lol!!!) - because everything goes on the animals.

But isn't it awful that people don't know the difference or the distinction between RSPCA HQ and RSPCA local animal shelter? I didn't till I recently came here to work and it shocked me that the money goes there and we don't get any of it.

I just wanted people to realise that we are not "them", despite the name above the door and the branding. If I can help just one person understand that, and they can go and tell one more, we're on the right track and maybe then people can look a little more kindly on the RSPCA - BUT on those of us working tirelessly for animals in YOUR neighbourhood. We're quite nice really, honest.

Rak2 - I'm so glad someone else is a supporter of the older cat - me too! My current love is a 14 year old gorgeous tortie who was 9 when I adopted her from our shelter and she had been with them for 5 months and was being overlooked. She's a lot less hassle than my 3 year old cat who's naughty and mischevious. My old gal just wants to sleep and be loved - it can't be any easier than that, eh?

Thanx for listening everyone - and I only came on here to find out the best way to save money on contact lenses, lol.

xxx

Welcome to MSE blackqueen

It never ceases to baffle me that the the RSPCA don't, at least partially, fund their local rescues from the legacies, direct debits and appeal responses that go direct to National RSPCA.

You might be able to answer a question which has puzzled me for a while now, just what does affiliation with the RSPCA do for small local rescues? Is it really just the name over the door?

GemJar_2

rak2 wrote: »

I think the RSPCA do a great job under difficult circumstances. They don't always get it right and they can't help everyone. But thank goodness they are there.

For the OP, can I just say that in the early 90's I rented a house and a cat was always hanging around, wanting to come in at all times of the day and night. It had a collar. I was friendly but not too friendly as I thought it had a home to go to.
The time came when I was going to move and as the cat hung around my house so much I decided to try and contact the owner to check if she ever went home.
I put a note in her collar and registered her in the found book at the vets three months before I was due to move. No one ever called me. I went round neighbours houses and asked if they knew who the cat belonged to. Many of them knew her but didn't know were she lived.The note was never removed from the collar, so I took the cat with me. We had a very happy ten years together and I hope she led a contented life with me. (she always came back so I guess she did)

Fast forward to 2008 I had a similar experience with another cat who just wanted to come and live with me. She didn't look like a stray but I never found who she belonged to. Now she's part of the family.


I hope you don't think I steal cats though, I already had three when the latest one took up residence , I really didn't need another and I really tried to find out where she came from. I just wanted you to know that it's entirely possible that your beloved cat got lost somewhere but is now curled up in front of some other cat lover's fire.

I entirely understand if thats happened to my little man. I know cats aren't owned they're 'cared for' by their staff and they come and go as they choose, in all honesty I hope that this has happened just so that he's safe and happy especially during such cold weather xx