Wild about the RSPCA

[Rich]

Wild? I'm absolutely furious!

We were locking up the house for the night at 1 a.m. on Friday morning when we heard a cat miaowing.

A lovely cat that visits us in the garden was stuck halfway through the cat door. On inspection it was clear he had had an accident in that one of its legs was pointing up rather than down, had no fur on the leg and was bleeding around its foot.

I comforted him, son went to get the cat travel cage and wife telephoned the R.S.P.C.A.

The RSPCA inspector arrived at 2:15 and took the cat to a vets saying it would be one of three in Dover. I took a photo of the cat and next day went round the neighbourhood to find out whose cat it is.

He belongs to a young family three doors away. We have spent Friday and Saturday telephoning the RSPCA in an attempt to find out where the cat is.

They have no record of it, and have not called us back once when they said they will. Basically they have lost the cat and don't seem smart enough to be able to contact the woman who took it and ask her what she did with it.

We now feel guilty for calling them and the neighbours have phoned every vet they can find in Dover and Folkestone and the local cat sancturaries to no avail.

There seems something very wrong with the RSPCA when all their good work is undone by such bad organisation.

[Kymba]

That is awful Rich. I have never heard anything like it!! the poor family
But dont beat yourselves up. You were doing the best for the cat, You didn't know this was going to happen..
I hope they manage to find the cat and return it to the family. please let us know if they do .

[werdnal]

I wouldn't be able to use adequately strong words to describe my past experience of the RSPCA as I would be banned as a member.

They are absolutely useless.

There was a feature on our local news only last week about a family of ducks who had taken up residence on a hotel swimming pool in Devon. The hotel were happy to let them stay, but feared for their safety in the chlorinated water which they were drinking as well as swimming in. I think there were 3 duckling, fairly well grown but still not able to cope alone in the wild or fly. They caught the ducklings first - bad idea in my book as they are the easy ones to get hold of and could have been left until adults were rounded up. Then they made such a pigs ear of trying the corner the adults, they flew off. RSCPA lady said "we'll look after the youngsters until they are old enough, but the parents may even come back and lay again!". Why split the family and put the youngsters in care, when the whole brood could have been released together somewhere else and left to get on with their lives.

I think the cat story is appalling and would suggest the local papers or even radio station might take up this story!

[Kerry]

It might be that they have conveniently forgotten what they have done with it due to the fact that they have put it to sleep. If you have an animal in need the worst people you can contact are the RSPCA. Very sad, but very true. I would suggest that you tell them you are going to involve the local newspaper and see if that gets them off their butts and makes them produce evidence of what they have done with the cat. If they say that they have put it to sleep, ask for evidence of which vet saw the cat and determined that it was untreatable. Insist on speaking to that vet in person.

Kerry

[John]

I have to agree with Kerry on this issue. It is appalling in this day and age with the technology to hand that such a situation should arise. If they are allowed to get away with it some other unfortunate owner may unnecessarily "lose" a pet.

John

Originally Posted by Kerry

It might be that they have conveniently forgotten what they have done with it due to the fact that they have put it to sleep. If you have an animal in need the worst people you can contact are the RSPCA. Very sad, but very true. I would suggest that you tell them you are going to involve the local newspaper and see if that gets them off their butts and makes them produce evidence of what they have done with the cat. If they say that they have put it to sleep, ask for evidence of which vet saw the cat and determined that it was untreatable. Insist on speaking to that vet in person.

Kerry

[demicav]

This sound really bad but doesn't surprise me as I've heard bad things about the RSPCA before. If the cat was badly injured it may have been put to sleep but they should still have kept a record of it. Hope it does get traced but I don't hold out much hope.

[Rich]

They finally called the cat's owner today, 4 days after the incident. The cat is in Ashford.

The owner went up there and was told the cat's leg needed to be amputated, she gave the go ahead even though the cost would be over £500. She thought after that she should have phoned around for quotes and just out of interest phoned her local vet who said they'd have done it £200 cheaper, but that probably doesn't include lodgings for five days.

He's only two years old so he'll get used to having the 3 legs, I expect he'll be around later in the summer.

[rlchew]

Well that is sort of a happy outcome to this fiasco albeit the cat has had to lose a leg. Let's hope it quickly adapts to the situation. I have known both dogs and cats to manage perfectly adequately in this situation.

As for the RSPCA ....

Richard

[demicav]

That's a happy ending, not the losing a leg bit but at least he'll be reunited with his owners.

[nightshade]

I had a smartly dressed young man on the door step after money for the RSPCA
he was after direct debit donations.I asked if he could explain their policy as regards wildlife,he left

[Garden Carpet]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I had a smartly dressed young man on the door step after money for the RSPCA
he was after direct debit donations.I asked if he could explain their policy as regards wildlife,he left

That would be because RSPCA, NSPPC,Guide Dogs for the Blind et al hive off the door knocking to someone else.. who employs smartly dressed young men and women to go about the streets and persuade folk to take out a sponsorship agreement. They are not permitted to engage the public in debate about the ethics of the company they are collecting for. That chap might not even know... or care... about the workings of the RSPCA.. he is just earning his crust!
jaki

ps.. guess how I know this

[thunder]

All these negative reports of the RSPCA are rather worrying, as, according to the paper, it is they who will gain statutory right of entry to your home under this new pet legislation if they suspect you of mistreating a pet. But maybe that's inaccurate - it was only in the paper!

henrya

[Kymba]

I am glad that the family were finally reunited with their Cat.. its sad that it lost a leg but at least it is alive and back with those that love it.

And although this thread has had a lot of negatives about the RSPCA... lets not forget that they also do a lot of good,( but then good things rarely get mentioned) and a lot of animals would be abused and harmed if they weren;t there.

[matt_xyz]

this cock-up by the RSPCA does sound unfortunate, but I thought somebody should at least say a good word for the RSPCA. In my opinion they do a bloomin' good job, often in very difficult circumstances, and they tackle a huge number of cases of appalling animal cruelty and mistreatment. Like any large organisation there will be administrative cock-ups, incompetent staff and so on, but I've always been impressed by both the commitment and the knowledge of the RSPCA staff whom I've had contact with.

edit: ah, I've just seen that Kymba has made a similar point above

Matt

[Kymba]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I had a smartly dressed young man on the door step after money for the RSPCA
he was after direct debit donations.I asked if he could explain their policy as regards wildlife,he left

When I worked in the wildife rescue centre as a volunteer, We had a lot of dealings with RSPCA Officers. They were regularly bringing in injured or abandoned Wildlife and were always very caring and had a genuine Love for wildlife as well as domesticated animals.. And often came back several times to check on the animal they had brought in

[buzfuz8149]

I have to agree with Matt & Kymba, it happens in most large organisations - some people will go the extra mile to help, but unfortunately some are not really interested - it happens.


Carol.

[demicav]

I do agree that the RSPCA do alot of good. It's not all bad and usually there'll be one inspector covering a very large area. Must be a hard job yet rewarding at the same time.

[Rich]

I'm not knocking the inspectors who I'm sure do the best that they can with the organisation behind them.

As I said in my original post.

There seems something very wrong with the RSPCA when all their good work is undone by such bad organisation.

[Garden Carpet]

Today I took a very poorly hog to an RSPCA hospital near Kings Lynn in Norfolk. The lady who admitted him told me they lost 25% of their funding a couple of years back.. and it has mostly gone from the administration side. Some of this was done by not phoning people to let them know about the animal in question. No excuse for shoddy tracking of the animal though.

Jaki

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Rich

They finally called the cat's owner today, 4 days after the incident. The cat is in Ashford.

The owner went up there and was told the cat's leg needed to be amputated, she gave the go ahead even though the cost would be over £500. She thought after that she should have phoned around for quotes and just out of interest phoned her local vet who said they'd have done it £200 cheaper, but that probably doesn't include lodgings for five days.

He's only two years old so he'll get used to having the 3 legs, I expect he'll be around later in the summer.

to be fair, my cat had to have his leg off though they spent over a week trying to save it first. Thankfully I was insured because I saw the bill and it was well over £1000!!
he was six at the time and has coped just fine so I'm sure this little whipper snapper will be fine too.

[brainfarmer]

i donate to the rspca and i tend to see stuff in a realistic way. does the rspca get it right with every injured animal? no it does its best that 'best' may fall well below what we could expect. do i feel my donation helps animals yes i do. a bad experience with an animal charity is just that i could donate to the rspb or pdsa and im sure i could find examples were they didnt 'do' what i hoped but its the ethos i support not the individual cases.