the RSPCA came a calling . . . . . . .

[momji1971]

Tonight we had the RSPCA call asking for direct debit donations. I let the chap go through all his speach and then it was my turn.

I explained we rescue sick and injured Hedgehogs and work with a small hog centre, Warrington Hedgehog Rescue. He answered brilliant, so you care about wildlife.

At this point, my blood began to boil as he said the RSPCA were the only animal charity that prosecuted. He must have forgotten the RSPB etc.

So I mentioned I will not give money to the RSPCA whilst they seem to have an unofficial policy of euthanising wildlife that could otherwise be saved and returned to the wild. Because they are to busy dealing with domestic animals. It's damned hard educating the public without them then ringing the RSPCA and being told to leave well alone or having it picked up and seen off!

His answer, I understand you don't agree with all our policies but we have to prioritise! My case in point.

I told him good luck and goodbye!

regards.
Stu.

[CharlieCreek]

It is sad that the RSPCA seem to often give out very poor advice and will rarely respond to a wildlife casualty.

From my rangering experience they have never responded to a wildlife injury call put in by us.

From my hedgehog rescuing experience we have had a large number of people contact us after contacting the RSPCA having received awful advice from 'feed hedgehogs milk' to hoglets out during the day and leave them alone they will be fine to one they actually did deliver to us which turned out to have mange. I tried to contact them back to inform them and numerous messages left and no call back.

It annoyed me to see their latest promotional advert (for donations obviously) showing a hedgehog in it. They must have made an error thinking it was a cat when picking it up.

[momji1971]

In order to be fair this was the reply one week after lodging my enquiry. What they fail to address is the RSPCA rep admitting the policy of prioritisation of pets over widlife. Notice they still advocate watching the poor animal from a distance and then calling back if there is a problem. This is correct for most animals BUT hedgehogs. I've seen too many hogs dead or dying because the RSPCA instructs people in this way. If a hog is out in the day there's a problem. It might not be visible but the problems is there. Intervention is needed and the hog sent to the nearest rehabilitator quickly.

"Thank you for your enquiry.

I am very sorry that you have a poor opinion of the RSPCA's work with wildlife casualties. If you look on our website, you will see that we have several pages on wildlife rehabilitation including:
1. offering advice about such casualties - you state that we will tell people to leave possible casualties alone, but we are aware that many such animals do not need rescuing. We advise that the caller that, if the animal has no obvious injuries and is not in direct danger, that they should monitor the animal from a distance to see if it gets on with life or if its parents return etc. If it does not then they are asked to call us again. You also say that we suggest feeding hedgehogs milk whereas our FAQ on hedgehogs says the exact opposite. We also suggest people contact the British Hedgehog Preservation Society for more information.
2. You will see that we have pages on our four wildlife centres who last year admitted over 16,000 casualties and have a release rate of over 40% (depending on species seals 80%+, sparrowhawks 25%). Hedgehogs are still are still in our top 5 of species admitted.
3. We also do research to assess the survival of our rehabilitated casualties and we are currently radio tracking released hedgehogs in East Sussex.
4. We also have pages on how we work with other rehabilitators and the standards that we use to assess them.

So we do undertake a lot of work with wildlife casualties.
As to the comment about prosecutions, the RSPB do not take prosecutions. They investigate incidents (as do we) but then work with us or the Police and Crown Prosecution Service to take the prosecution to court.

Regarding our call centres, the decision was made seven years ago to bring ten regional call centres under, "one national roof." We did use a well respected outsourcing company, however the staff are given full and ongoing training in both the RSPCA's policies and procedures.

Kind Regards
RSPCA Advice Team"

Please, if you do not agree with the statements the RSPCA sent back, write here and I will pass on further information to them.

Thanks to CharlieCreek for letting me use your reply.

regards.
Stu.

[APC]

While I don't necessarily agree with a lot of RSPCA issues, they have sent out an officer on all occasions over the last 2 years where a swan or cygnet has been tangled in fishing line at my work (on a weekend there is only one of us on duty so it's nigh on impossible to catch and treat by yourself). They have never sounded unhappy to help. It has been the same person who I believe covers Hampshire and Sussex on his own (on weekends at least).

[eeyore]

I would also say that I've worked a lot with the RSPCA a lot over my career both on the animal rescue side and with the investigations officers and I have always found them to be excellent.

yes they do have to prioritise as does any charity , or indeed any organisation - I mean even if you run a wildlife hospital that will take anything and theoretically has a 'no kill' policy you still have to decide how you are going to target your limited resources - are you going to spend the entire contents of you bank balance trying to save one creature which will probably die anyway , or are you going to save some to spend on the rest of your inmates etc

And its not necessarily a matter of prioritising pets over wildlife , but making a call about what particular case you are going to investigate or animal you are going to rescue if you don't have the resources to do it all - for example the RSPCA investigations team spend masses of time working against badger baiters - but the time spent on some of these cases means that other allegations of neglect may not get looked into with the same vigour.

I'd also note that they are the only national animal charity that prosecutes - the blue cross don't, nor do the various wildlife trusts , and most of the small local animal charities dont have the wherewithal. The only other animal charity i can think of that kind of does is the badger trusts/nfbg - but they dont usually bring a prosecution themselves instead working with RSPCA investigations and/or police WLO to gether evidence and provide technical advice.

The RSPB investigations team do a lot of work on prosecutions but dont bring them themselves instead working with police WLOs , and also they are largely concerned with birds not animals

[Littlesparrow]

I contacted the RSPCA about a dead horse found in a field. There were other horses in the field so I requested, a while later, what had happened and the outcome. I never did get a reply, so if it happened again I think I would go straight to the police, as I can't be sure that the RSPCA did anything.

[Burko]

Talk about shooting the messenger.