RSPCA

I was interested in the PetStreet competition to win a day with an RSPCA inspector. Well this is just my sort of thing, I would love to win this for so many reasons, I am very interested in animal welfare and the work of the RSPCA inspectors, they are on the front line and very often the first contact most people have with the organisation.

I just happen to have personally met two inspectors, and I must say they have both been caring people, who like me have a great love of animals. I am a member of St. John Ambulance Cadets and we had a local RSPCA inspector come out one evening and give us an illustrated talk, it was extremely interesting, I was amazed to learn there are only 325 inspectors covering England and Wales, this is a very small number compared to other organisations like the Police, so obviously their workload is very heavy and they each cover a very large area too, the RSPCA national call centre gets hundreds of calls a day, and each one has to be handed over to an inspector to deal with, it is a wonder they do as well as they do, they get no government funding which I didn’t realise, all their money comes in through donations from the general public, obviously the animal loving ones. The other inspector I met socially, he was lovely too, and had a little puppy with him, you could see at once how much he loved animals, and he was very kind and gentle and was very patient when I asked him lots of questions about his work.

I must get back to the competition, it says what do the RSPCA do best and why, well I think I can answer that question easily. I think the rescue and rehabilitation work they do with rehoming unwanted animals is terrific, they have lots of animals coming into their branches and animal centres throughout the country, either because their owners have just got too old and are no longer able to look after them properly, or through sad cases of neglect where a member of the public has rung then up and told the RSPCA about an unhappy or neglected animal, and they have had to resort to taking the animal away from the owners because they have not been responsible enough. They managed last year to rehome over 70,000 animals which is quite an achievement.
I think this part of their work must be the most rewarding, and must give the RSPCA inspectors a good feeling to think that they have changed the lives of an animal for the better, and prevented any further cruelty taking place. Animals deserve to be loved and cared for properly, but unfortunately some owners just don’t understand how to care for them, they view them as a plaything you can bring out when you feel like it and put away when you are bored, they almost need to take a test before rushing out to buy a pet, especially some of the most exotic breeds now readily available, perhaps we as a nation of so called animal lovers should adopt this idea, I feel sure it would prevent a lot of suffering, after all you have to take a test before being allowed to drive a car, but you don’t need one for looking after a living creature, it seems silly to me.
I would like to spend a day with an RSPCA inspector, to learn about the training they receive and the hands on work they do, and how they cope with the general public, it must be quite hard investigating allegations of neglect, I am sure they find themselves in pretty difficult situations sometimes, the education aspect of the work is something I am very interested in too, how they educate the public on matters relating to the welfare of animals, and how they support owners who are having particular difficulties to become more knowledgeable.

The RSPCA do get a lot of criticism in the press, I know this because people write to me at my website, some people view the RSPCA as the enemy and think they have too much power, I think the opposite they haven’t got enough especially when it comes to preventing animal suffering. I guess people will always fear what they don’t understand, and will then find fault or say bad things.

It must be sad for the inspectors sometimes when they are not welcomed by the animal owning public or treated with suspicion; I think if you are a good and responsible owner then you have nothing to fear. When the RSPCA inspectors do take animals from uncaring owners, they then have to collect evidence of the wrong doing and go to court, it is the courts that decide what punishment to give out not the RSPCA, I personally think the courts are much too lenient when it come sentencing animal abusers and neglecters, the RSPCA needs to be tough sometimes on people who give animals a miserable home and cause them unnecessary suffering. I remember what the inspector said to us when he came to give us his talk “Speak softly and carry a big stick” I will always remember that.