RSPCA - I am disgusted at this !

scheming_gypsy

jaqui59 wrote: »

Upon visiting Dog Rescue Centres, its easy to see that the vast majority of its inhabitants are Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Mastiffs and their types.

I see things very plainly, probably too plainly, and I dont understand why there cannot be a law put in place, that every owner of these types of dogs are forced (by whatever means)to have them neutered ... Plain as !!!

If every owner was forced to have them neutered then there'd be no more of them.
Out of interest. when you visit the rescue centres, can you see that they're staffy or just from the kennel notes? A while ago when my mum was looking / thinking about rehoming a dog, we went to a shelter and most were staffy crosses.... Except very few of them looked to have any staffy in them; it just looked as though they'd been labeled as a staff cross because they didn't know what it was.

Tropez

I doubt the RSPCA are actually "happy" about putting down healthy dogs but when you're dealing with tens of thousands of them how can you feasibly expect to find them all alternative homes when there are more pets being placed in rescues every month? It is an impossible and unfortunately unfeasible mountain to climb and so something has to be done. There's finite resources for what at present is an infinite problem and while the RSPCA are not wholly innocent they are not the only problem; their actions are a symptom of that problem and the most effective way of treating the problem is to go for the cause, not the symptom.

And, of course, the RSPCA have no real legal authority - all they have is the legal power we all have to bring about private prosecutions under the Prosecution of Offences Act and yet the Government seem to expect them to deal with cases of animal cruelty because if you actually go on Gov.UK and look up animal cruelty, they refer you to the RSPCA who, as we know, don't have sufficient legal powers to actually do much bar launch private prosecutions that they have to be certain will succeed.

So once again, the RSPCA's apparent inaction is a symptom of the actual problem that despite all the legislation about protecting animals the job of enforcing those laws seems to fall to... no one.

trolleyrun

The RSPCA could home more animals if they let more people adopt. A few years ago, a friend of mine tried adopting a dog from them, and even though my friend is retired, has over 40 years experience with dogs, doesn't go abroad on holidays and has an enclosed garden (although small), the RSPCA told her she was unsuitable!

I'm surprised they'll let anyone adopt animals at all if they thought my friend was unsuitable. She went elsewhere (different rescue) and got a lovely little dog. The rescue she got her dog from don't have "set" prices either, they just say that a donation would be lovely if one is able. This is the rescue I went to, to get my dog and they are lovely there. As far as I know, they have a no-kill policy.

Person_one

harveybobbles wrote: »

Every house should have a licence a bit like VED. If you have a car. you pay VED. If you have an animal, you pay a fee each year.

It should be a big fee as it will cut down the amount of people whi just buy a dog to breed.

I have four dogs and would happily pay a licence fee for each of them every year.

I have two dogs and earn a pittance, but I'm a perfectly responsible dog owner. Having money doesn't mean you're a better person!

The kind of people who look at a pug and see it as a way to produce £1000 puppies every year won't be put off by a licence fee, but it will make owning dogs substantially harder for poor but decent people.

Person_one

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

If every owner was forced to have them neutered then there'd be no more of them.
Out of interest. when you visit the rescue centres, can you see that they're staffy or just from the kennel notes? A while ago when my mum was looking / thinking about rehoming a dog, we went to a shelter and most were staffy crosses.... Except very few of them looked to have any staffy in them; it just looked as though they'd been labeled as a staff cross because they didn't know what it was.

I'm afraid my experience backs up the fact that most dogs in rescue are staffies, staffie crosses or other bull breeds and their crosses. Manchester Dogs Home is absolutely full of them, and at the rescue mine come from it was about 80%, they mainly took in death row poundies.

lemontart

Hate to tell op but yes true dd was doing to train as rspca inspector after uni but decided against it when she heard their figures etc when she went to open day for applicants

scheming_gypsy

Person_one wrote: »

I'm afraid my experience backs up the fact that most dogs in rescue are staffies, staffie crosses or other bull breeds and their crosses. Manchester Dogs Home is absolutely full of them, and at the rescue mine come from it was about 80%, they mainly took in death row poundies.

Strangely enough that's where I was talking about. Most of the crosses were labelled as staffie cross but had no staffie characteristics. I just got the impression that their policy was 'if you don't know what it is, label it as a staffie cross',

Person_one

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

Strangely enough that's where I was talking about. Most of the crosses were labelled as staffie cross but had no staffie characteristics. I just got the impression that their policy was 'if you don't know what it is, label it as a staffie cross',

You can't deny that there are more of them there than any other kind of dog though?

Last time I was there they seemed to have a lot of collie types too, I suppose they required too much effort for their owners.

3v3

harveybobbles wrote: »

....
I have four dogs and would happily pay a licence fee for each of them every year...

The UK used to have a dog licence fee: it was abolished in 1987.

scheming_gypsy

Person_one wrote: »

You can't deny that there are more of them there than any other kind of dog though?
s.

actually staffies, or crosses that looked like staffies... not really. There were a lot of cross breeds that just had 'staffy cross' down but like I said; there was no indication that there was staffy in them.
The only thing that I could think of was that they were using the staffy image as a disclaimer. So if they were aggressive to other dogs / cats / people, then they could say it was down to the staffy.

I got my lad from them almost 10 years ago. He is a staffy cross and you can / could see the staffy in him; but back then they had all the staffies at the bottom end on their own