RSPCA PERSECUTE ANOTHER VICTIM

RSPCA: End this cruelty to animal owners

The animal charity is spending too much time prosecuting innocent animal owners, believes Christopher Booker

Last week I reported on the tragic story of Alan Brough, the retired builder who became so depressed, after the RSPCA had – for no good reason – taken the herd of 90 semi-wild ponies he had looked after for 30 years on the Cumbrian moors, that he hanged himself.

This week’s story, again passed on to me by SHG (the Self-Help Group set up to advise victims of RSPCA persecution), concerns Michael O’Neill, an Anglesey horse breeder. For three years he was dragged through the courts by the RSPCA, after one of its officials had in 2007 seen sores on two horses he had bought from Ireland for £10,000.

The RSPCA instigated criminal charges against Mr O’Neill, claiming that the sores must have been caused by collars round his horses’ necks. Mr O’ Neill’s vet had already diagnosed their cause as a rare bacterial infection called strangles, for which he had been treating the animals. As the case dragged on, threatening the closure of his business, Mr O’Neill became so stressed that his health deteriorated. At one hearing last year, he had a stroke in the courtroom.

Last week, when the trial finally concluded, the magistrates acquitted Mr O’Neill of all charges, saying he could leave the court with “an untarnished reputation”. Such stories should be brought to the attention of all those generous folk who still provide the RSPCA with an income of £115 million a year in donations, without realising what a change has come over that once admirable organisation – and how much of its activity, according to critics, is now devoted to prosecuting innocent animal owners in order to generate the publicity that keeps those donations rolling in.

Christopher Booker- Daily Telegraph

MAN FOUND HANGED AFTER RAID BY RSPCA BULLYBOYS

CUMBRIA ANIMAL LOVER ARRESTED OVER FELL PONIES 'CRUELTY' FOUND HANGED

A Cumbrian ‘animal lover’ who owned the wild ponies of Caldbeck Common is thought to have killed himself after they were taken away by the RSPCA and he was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty.

Alan ‘Tutty’ Brough, 68, from Newbiggin, near Penrith, was arrested at 8.30am on Wednesday shortly before a major RSPCA and police operation began to catch about 90 of his ponies that had lived wild on Uldale and Caldbeck commons for 30 years.

After being released from Carlisle’s Durranhill police station at 3pm, Mr Brough returned home but later drove to St Ninian’s Church at Brougham, where his family say he was found hanged.

One of his four daughters, Kathleen Michie, from Carlisle, said: “It was not my dad who walked out of the police cells – he was trance-like. He said they had taken his life. He was not a people person, he preferred animals. We ran down to the car to stop him leaving the house and I took the keys out of the car.

“We spent 45 minutes talking to him and eventually he agreed to take his grand-daughter Natasha with him – he wanted to go and think.

“He stopped at Rheged for fuel and drove off when Natasha went to pay. She chased him and jumped in front of the car. But he drove off when she tried to get in.”

The 18-year-old alerted the rest of the family, who gave chase. Natasha eventually found her grandfather by the River Eamont.

His daughter Kathleen added: “We had begged him to carry on and fight for the ponies. He spent half his life fighting the parish council and Caldbeck Commoners to keep the ponies on the common.

“He got up at 5am every day to go out and gather grass for his horses. He spent every day with them.”

The ponies were rounded up and loaded onto lorries on Wednesday before being taken to new homes. Mr Brough, a builder, was not told of the operation before it started.

He first released the Shetland ponies onto the common when he lived at Mosedale when his daughters outgrew them. The ponies bred and multiplied, becoming a tourist attraction on the commons.

In an effort to control numbers, a castration programme was started by landowners, The Lake District National Park Authority, two years ago. Mr Brough co-operated with the programme but the RSPCA got involved after welfare concerns were raised.

Following advice from a vet, four ponies were seized by Cumbria police last Friday. The RSPCA said one pony was put to sleep because of its poor condition.

Redwings Horse Sanctuary, World Horse Welfare, the British Horse Society and Horse World were involved in Wednesday’s operation and they are housing the ponies in undisclosed locations. Mr Brough’s family have not been told where they are.

A statement from the RSPCA and other horse charities involved in Wednesday’s operation said: “We are saddened by what has happened and our thoughts are with Mr Brough’s family at this time.”

Paragon Veterinary Group has castrated many of the ponies over the last two years.

David Black from the group said this week: “Of the ponies we saw, considering their management as wild ponies, the vets involved did not have concerns about their body condition.”

Mr Brough was well-known in his home town of Penrith and once kept lions at his Mosedale home in the hope of starting a zoo.

His family said he would never have let any animal suffer and that he was treating the horse that was put down by police. His daughter Cindy said the family were angry with police.

She added :“He was taken away for the best part of the day. They put him in the cells and broke his heart. It was as if they wanted him out of the way so they could take the horses.”

Mr Brough leaves his wife Kathleen, four daughters and nine grandchildren.

Enquiries into Mr Brough’s death are ongoing, but officers are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

Cumberland News

RSPCA PERSECUTING SQUIRREL KILLERS NOW!

Remember that RSPCA figures for 2009 show that they killed 63,321 animals - an increase of over 3000 on 2008!

When a bird lover managed to trap one of the grey squirrels raiding his nut feeders, he decided that drowning would be the most humane way to dispose of it.

What happened next landed Raymond Elliott with a bill for £1,500 and, even worse, a criminal record.

A neighbour tipped off the RSPCA that he had submerged the animal in a water butt.

Mr Elliott, a 58-year-old window cleaner, insisted that the squirrel died 'almost instantaneously'.

However a vet said the process would have taken three minutes, so Mr Elliott was taken to court accused of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

The landmark case sets an important precedent for killing grey squirrels, which are classified as a non-native invasive species, and could pave the way for hundreds of other prosecutions across the country.

The RSPCA warned that many common methods of killing grey squirrels and other pests could now fall foul of the law, and said the only humane way to dispatch them would be to take them to a vet for a lethal injection - at a cost of up to £70.

Mr Elliott, from Branston, Staffordshire, was prosecuted under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

After pleading guilty at Burton Magistrates' Court, he was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,547 to cover RSPCA costs.

'This is an injustice,' he said yesterday.

'People do it across the country all the time - they are just making an example of me. I do not feel what I did was inhumane or cruel.'

Doug Walton, defending, described Mr Elliott as a man of good character. He added: 'The drowning of squirrels and rats is a widespread practice, so what are the alternatives for these people?

'Realistically, I can't see many opting to take the creatures to the vets to pay to have them euthanised.'

John Sutcliffe, prosecuting, said the case was the first to be brought under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in respect of a non-domestic animal.

He said that Mr Elliott was 'extremely open and frank' about what he had done and 'believed it was the most humane way of disposing of the animal'.

He also warned that official advice - that squirrels should be caught in a sack and killed with a single blow to the head - could be a breach of the act as the animal could suffer before it dies.

An RSPCA spokesman said: 'Drowning grey squirrels causes unnecessary suffering, as this case demonstrates.

'Realistically the only humane method would be to take the squirrel along to vet, as you would with a pet.'

Tim Bonner, a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said the RSPCA was using the courts to push its policy on animal rights.

'Killing grey squirrels is a good thing - there are far too many of them and they threaten our native species and woodland,' he said.

'It is absolutely ridiculous that the RSPCA has spent thousands dragging this man through the courts when he was clearly unaware of the law.

'They are using the courts as a propaganda vehicle.'

Carri Nicholson, project manager for Save Our Squirrels, said: 'I feel very sorry for this man being prosecuted as most people don't know the law and it's not always clear what they should do.

'I would advise people to check with their local wildlife trust and ask advice on the best way to kill a squirrel.

'I would not recommend taking the animals to the vet to be put down as we have had advice that transporting animals to vets can cause unnecessary suffering and would therefore not be in keeping with the act.

'It is also prohibitively expensive and can cost up to £70.'

Daily Mail article