RSPCA WHAT THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

This information was requested in August - the answer received in December!

Remember now that they stated:

"It was an absolutely extreme case. The bolt gun is certainly not used routinely by our officers."

Liar Liar Liar

Thank you for your enquiry.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in response; this is due to an exceptionally high number of enquiries received over recent months and it is taking some time to reply to them all.

Not all the figures you have requested are available and we would normally require greater background and context so that we can understand the purposes for which the statistics will be used. However, we hope you find the following information helpful.

On average the Society rehomes over 60,000 animals every year. It has been necessary for our inspectorate to euthanase 576 dogs so far this year, 65 by captive bolt. The use of the captive bolt is the quickest and kindest approach under certain circumstances, but the Society recognises that it may be perceived as a controversial method of euthanasia for companion animals.

Sadly, the RSPCA is often seen as the charity of last resort and so that an animal's welfare is not compromised further, euthanasia is often the kindest option. No one working for the Society finds this aspect of their role at all easy. Until there is greater recognition of the issues surrounding indiscriminate breeding and irresponsible pet ownership it is likely to remain an aspect of our work.

We have new campaigns and education programmes planned for 2010 that will highlight and address these fundamental concerns.

Other animal welfare charities claim they do not put animals to sleep but say they are unable to assist owners in many more challenging circumstances. The RSPCA does not believe this is an acceptable response as further animal suffering is often the result.

Thank you again for contacting the Society, and we hope the above information has been of interest.

Kind regards
RSPCA HQ Advice Team

SO RSPCA, HAVE THESE OTHER 55 BEEN EXTREME CASES AS WELL?????

ANOTHER BLOOD-STAINED GRAVY TRAIN BEGINS, WE FEAR FOR THE RSPCA?

London 2012 Olympics urged to give animal welfare a sporting chance

RSPCA welcomes news on cage-free eggs but disappointed by lack of commitment to other species –Monday, 07, Dec 2009 12:00

Will this be a "Cage Free" Olympics? If the Olympics want "free range food", then why are they using "Freedom Food", which (despite its misleading name) is no guarantee of free-range? The RSPCA's big food campaign at the moment is on so-called "cage free eggs", which are essentially no better than battery hens. Another blood-stained gravy train begins, I fear for the RSPCA? Will RSPCA inspectors be "on duty" at the Olympics, at the public expense? Perhaps checking that none of the athletes from Ghana have trained while feeding on rat meat?

The end of Trust

by Irene Barker (Hillside Supporter)

A few days ago I spent a pleasant morning in Bury St. Edmunds, enjoying the market, doing a little shopping. The West Suffolk branch of the RSPCA was holding a street collection to raise funds and their collectors were to be seen through the town, standing quietly on

street corners, many accompanied by their dogs. We talked about the difficulty of raising money in these straightened times and the fact that there are more than 170 local branches of the RSPCA, all so-called ‘independent’ all receiving little financial help from central RSPCA, the third richest charity in Great Britain. I saw that these kindly, honest, committed people were the true face of the RSPCA, the face I believe is the driving force behind everything good the RSPCA does, who work tirelessly to raise much-needed funds, who do not grand-stand their compassion, who stroked my (rescued) dog and by so doing acknowledged his right, and the right of millions of his fellow creatures, to help, protection, sanctuary. Here was to be found the empathy, the altruism, the widening circle that flowed inevitably from William Wilberforce’s crusade to end human slavery to include all creatures great and small, including my totally insignificant dog.

Freedom Food pigs (August 2009) with accompanying dead crows. Presumably these have been placed around the pen to prevent other birds from stealing the pigs’ food!

And what of the other face of the RSPCA? The official face, that now appears monolithic, unaccountable, defensive, secretive, heartless? How did I come to lose faith in them? How did my thirty years of unquestioning support, both moral and financial, morph into a sense of betrayal, a dissipation of that most precious commodity, trust, which is the essential bedrock of all charities?

It started in 2007. I saw the footage on ‘Tonight with Trevor Mcdonald’ of the Hillside exposé of Freedom Food accredited farms (FF). Nothing has affected me more profoundly than this. It is not just because of the unspeakable cruelty exposed in that report. It is not just because the cruelty took place on a British, not a foreign farm. It was because I felt betrayed by the very organisation that promised me unconditional protection of animals, and instead offered me this image of FF -accredited, RSPCA - sponsored, hell.

Then began a two year long correspondence between me and various officials of the RSPCA.

Freedom Food pigs (July 2009) lFreedom Food pigs (July 2009) left to decompose in skip. The same remains were still evident in September 2009. eft to decompose in skip. The same remains were still evident in September 2009.

To say the correspondence was disturbing barely covers it. From the word go a defensive wall went up, and I was in turns sniped at, ignored, told that our correspondence was at an end (unsuccessfully) and fed inaccurate and irrelevant information. However, my persistence did culminate in Mark Watts, Chief Executive RSPCA, offering me an audience with Leigh Grant, Chief Executive Freedom Food, which took place in September 2008. The interview did absolutely nothing to reassure me. It simply reinforced my conviction that the RSPCA had a tiger by the tail and was too frightened of a public backlash and possible PR disaster to let it go. Much of Leigh Grant’s defence of Freedom Food was based on quotations from the FAWC handbook, otherwise known as How to Be an Intensive Animal Producer and at the Same Time Give the Appearance of a Committed Animal Welfarist. Even a casual reading soon reveals that Freedom Food protocols and Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) protocols are generally indistinguishable from one another except in minor details and in turn pretty indistinguishable from mainstream, bog-standard welfare systems such as Farm Assured and Red Tractor.

I sent a detailed account of the interview to Mark Watts and received no reply. Then the next exposé hit the screens, this time on Channel 5 news, and I wrote again to Mark Watts urging him to act. I might as well have been calling out for a response from the Marie Celeste.

Why has there been no change as promised by Mark Watts? Why is there a cult of secrecy about the list of farms accredited by FF? Is it because so many of them fall by the wayside or lose interest, that any information about who’s in and who’s out cannot be relied upon to be accurate for more than a few months? It seems that farms unilaterally decide that they do not want to stay in the scheme, the contract between the producer and FF so tenuous and poorly formulated that they are meaningless and can be breached with impunity. And why, despite overwhelming evidence, the apparent unwillingness to prosecute FF accredited farms?

Why haven’t the images of creatures in extremis under their watch not galvanised the RSPCA into a root and branch review of the FF protocols?Why does the RSPCA persist in its stubborn conviction that behind any criticism of them there must lurk a hidden agenda? Such self- serving fantasies are themselves the product of a mindset that seems to believe that simply monitoring the multinational meat producers will bring about the dawn of a new era of responsible, cruelty-free farming, where the lives of our non-human fellow travellers are all sweetness and light, interrupted by a peaceful and swift demise at the gentle hands of the abattoir worker. No teeth clipping or castration without anaesthetic, no tail docking, no confinement in filthy pens and the final, squalid end to a nasty, short and brutish life on the killing floors of the abattoir. No subjection to attacks from sadistic morons to whose care these helpless creatures have been committed. This is the Disneyland image of farming the RSPCA in its persona as Freedom Food would present to us, fostered by sentimental fools like Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. The RSPCA has undermined its moral credibility by legitimising a commercial system where money and not compassion is the bottom line. It must rethink its basic principles if it wants to regain trust, if it wants to convince us that it is compassion which turns its wheels rather than a macho culture of hard- nosed business ethics, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. There are more contradictions and mutually exclusive value systems than you could shake a stick at to be found in the unholy alliance between FF and the RSPCA.

Freedom Food pig (January 2009). Although shown with straw bedding, marks indicate depth of slurry it has to wade through with massive hernia.

Before my lacerating experience with Freedom Food and its defenders I had never heard of Hillside Animal Sanctuary. It is only because of the work they do with rescued farm animals that I came to hear about them and their courageous exposés of barbaric practices in farms. Their many confrontations with the RSPCA seemed to match my own. It was finally the realisation that I was not alone in my concerns that brought me to this point. The RSPCA can take absolutely no comfort in the fact that it has been their intransigence, their secrecy, their aggressive refusal to engage in transparent debate about the many problems with FF, that I have sought common cause with their nemesis.

There will be more pain to come. It is in the nature of the beast that is FF. More helpless, voiceless, tormented, scraps of unvalued life will die in misery before the monolith that is now the RSPCA returns to its founding principles; until its suits, its faceless administrators and bureaucrats and its hopelessly ill-briefed press officers leave their desks, visit local branches, inspect for themselves a Freedom Farm or two, smell for themselves the terrible stench of fear and despair, look into the eyes of their real clients, and see for themselves who are truly the real RSPCA.

Irene Barker

Excerpts taken from Hillside Sanctuary Winter News Letter 2009

WSPA - SAVING DOGS FROM SLAUGHTER. RSPCA - SLAUGHTER DOGS!!

IS THIS HOW AN RSPCA INSPECTOR VIEWS YOUR MUCH LOVED PET?

In developing countries the World Society for Protection of Animals are preventing the culling of dogs by barbaric methods:

In the UK, an RSPCA inspector is sent out to do the culling. One of their favourite weapons is the captive bolt gun - a method deemed unacceptable by the WSPA.

'As there is a high risk of mis-stunning through inadequate use of the penetrating captive bolt, and hence causing pain and distress, WSPA considers this an unacceptable method for the euthanasia of dogs and cats.'

It's not strays that are at risk from the RSPCA (they don't help strays) but peoples pets - so make sure you have made a will so that your pets don't end up in their hands when you are gone.

'With a lack of knowledge and resources, communities in developing countries frequently resort to randomly culling strays, by poisoning, electrocuting or shooting dogs.

These methods are inhumane, causing the animals great pain and suffering. They are also ineffective in the long term as they do not address the cause of the problem.'

But your buddies the RSPCA think it's OK to shoot dogs. They don't use free bullets though - too expensive.

In Bali the WSPA have been working with the Bali Animal Welfare Association to promote:

'Vaccination, education, compassion'

In some countries, dog control officers armed with shotguns randomly shoot dogs in the streets.

In the UK RSPCA inspectors are happy to do it in peoples back gardens!

'Over the longer term, WSPA is helping reduce stray dog populations by educating people about responsible dog ownership. We're making sure owners know about sterilizing and caring for their animals. So that people won't abandon dogs, we're encouraging them to register their pets and we're getting governments to help through compulsory registration. WSPA is also helping enforce animal welfare legislation so people will treat pets humanely.

WSPA works to provide education about responsible pet ownership: dog identification, vaccination and neutering means fewer animals will end up on the street.

Our vision is that all countries will use effective and cruelty free methods of stray population management that address the roots of the problem.'

We think you had better speak to your buddies at the RSPCA in the UK then!

But lets not forget the joint statement by the WSPA and their buddies at the RSPCA - trying desperately to cover each other ass!

We think their slogan should be:

"By joining The WSPA Animal Rescue Team or making an urgent donation today, you can also help ensure that when dogs are slaughtered like vermin we will issue a joint press release with the perpetrators condoning it."

WSPA - WORLD SOCIETY FOR PROTECTION OF ANIMALS

HOW THE RSPCA INSPECTOR FINALLY ENDED THE LIVES OF THE TEN GERMAN SHEPHERDS

Remember their 1st statement?

Thank you for your enquiry. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying. We receive a very large volume of enquiries here and have to prioritise to deal with urgent animal welfare issues first.

There has been some misinformation posted with regard to this case. The facts are as follows:

We received a call on 23 June this year from a member of the public relating to 10 German Shepherd dogs at an address in Pontardawe, in south Wales. The caller said the dogs owner, a relative, had died and the dogs had been living on their own.

An RSPCA inspector visited the premises that day and assessed the animals. The inspector took the decision that none of the dogs were at all suitable for rehoming due to concerns about their aggressive behaviour and lack of socialisation with people. The dogs were also suffering from a severe skin condition.

We explained the next-of-kin that they should contact other rescue groups for help. The next-of-kin were made fully aware that if the RSPCA became involved, the dogs would be euthanased.

The owners next-of-kin later contacted the RSPCA again and said they had been turned down by other charities who were unwilling to take on the animals and they signed over the dogs, fully aware of what would happen.

It is the RSPCAs raison d'etre to prevent cruelty to animals, and it was decided this sad, but ultimately necessary, outcome for the dogs was the best way to prevent the animals any further suffering. The decision was not made lightly and, as always, it was made with the best interests of the animal at heart.

Thank you again for contacting the Society.

Kind regards

RSPCA HQ Advice Team

But how did you kill the dogs?

Thank you for your further enquiry.

Yes, they were. A decision was made following a discussion between eight RSPCA officers that the most humane form of euthanasia would be to use a captive bolt. This would minimise distress to the dogs, while also being the safest method for those people responsible for dealing with the animals. Restraining the dogs and then shaving a limb to prepare for a lethal injection would have caused these animals unnecessary suffering, due to the animals suffering from a severe skin condition.

Thank you again for contacting the Society.

Kind regards

RSPCA HQ Advice Team

But how did you kill the dogs - ANSWER THE QUESTION!!!

RSPCA not tell the truth! Who would have thought it?

Under their General Principles, the RSPCA states ‘The general principles on which the RSPCA operates, derived from extensive scientific evidence, is based on the fact that vertebrates and some invertebrates are sentient, and can feel pain and distress.’

Ah yes, we are getting there now.

This is the peaceful death they gave those 10 GSD's