Anyone had positive experience of the RSPCA?

[Capriole]

No.

 

[honetpot]

No, I have only once rung them and their response was poor. They used to go to the local horses auctions which was very well run and do b****r all for a couple of hours. Do not donate.

 

[Shantara]

This is rather depressing! I really thought more people would have good things to say, balancing the negatives. But other than one or two (not always recent) positive experiences, it does look like no-one's got much that's good to say about their work.

Mine was just a year or two ago. They've helped us lots of times and always been helpful.

This is the lovely Sherlock Bojangles (because he was a mystery and could jump so high!) that they took and rehomed for us I wish we could have kept him, but as you can see...our house isn't that big!
I was so glad my doggie liked him!
http://vimeo.com/6564890

 

[newbie_nix]

I haven't had much experience of having to call them out when in UK but their call centre drove me crazy a few months ago.

We were in process of emigrating from UK to NZ and I had about 10 calls from them over a period of a couple of weeks pestering me to donate, each time with the same patronising script asking if I had pets and how much I loved animals blah blah.

Whilst its true I am an animal lover and I have no issue donating to them or any animal charity, the guilt trip script started to get really annoying.

Anyway I told them on the first call to save the script, I would donate via their website (which I did) but to please remove my details as we were emigrating etc but they wouldn't and kept calling. Different people, same annoying script. One time when I politely asked them AGAIN to remove my details they were rude to me and hung up.

They used to have a great reputation. But now I hear many more negative stories than positive ones. I wonder what happened?

 

[rhino]

They used to have a great reputation. But now I hear many more negative stories than positive ones. I wonder what happened?

Money and politics.

 

[Redwind]

i dont know, i have heard they used to be pretty solid but then blew a few million quid on a nice new office for their admin people...

Normally this wouldnt be an issue but surely donations are supposed to be going toward animal rescue???

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Yes, and fairly recently. I reported somebody about the terrible condition of their ponies. An inspector phoned me back the next day, he visited the premises the day after, and the day after that he went back to the premises with a vet and the police, and the ponies were signed over to him there and then. The owner was taken to court, fined and banned from keeping horses for the next 10 years. One of the ponies had to be PTS, the others recovered and were rehomed. All through the process the inspector kept me up to date by phone.

 

[newbie_nix]

Yes, and fairly recently. I reported somebody about the terrible condition of their ponies. An inspector phoned me back the next day, he visited the premises the day after, and the day after that he went back to the premises with a vet and the police, and the ponies were signed over to him there and then. The owner was taken to court, fined and banned from keeping horses for the next 10 years. One of the ponies had to be PTS, the others recovered and were rehomed. All through the process the inspector kept me up to date by phone.

Nice to hear a positive (well you know what I mean) story. Those poor ponies I guess this is why even with my gripes, with their call centre staff and hearing negative stuff I will still donate to them and other animal charities and I guess no organisation is perfect.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

let me think long and hard.




Queued for 1 1/2 hrs for kittens -

when branch opened was 3rd in line was given form by some Fat women.

filled it in . was told by fat women OIC u have BF he needs to be here


I say but hes working
FW says you cant have a cat unless he is here
meanwhile women 2 behind me fills in form and goes straight indealt with by some other person .
I say well have you got any tortoiseshell cats
FW says no
I say but the paper says you have that why i driven 12 miles
FW says the paper always comes out a week late go away and come back when your bf can be here

duh I was 28 at the time I walked off mad.



in 1970s RSPCA given in will |£ 2000 by lady and one manager of RSPCA bought a car and new carpet with money





saw RSPCA in southhall market 7 years back saw black mare so think and weak and head down looking depressed

I walked up to RSPCA officer and told him. he says
* OH I will get over there sometime need to finish my coffee* Was nearly hour before she saw her

Numerous calls about rescued wildlife same comment We cant do anything phone tiggywinkles

cat hit by car phone RSPCA they said is it being mistreated I say no been hit , well we cant help we only deal with cruelty

cases these are just some examples

so i guess the answer is NO

 

[cremedemonthe]

BIG NO from me too

 

[leah_x]

I've only rang them once. Someone ponies were stables on some land and were hardly ever seen too. Fully clipped, no rugs in the middle of winter. No hay or food, hadn't been mucked out for a good month, so standing knee deep in their own filth. (I would have done something but it was private land and somebody elses horses, and I thought if I mucked them out it wouldn't look as bad when the RSPCA arrived.) But nope, I got asked "Do they have water?" So I reply "A tiny bit which is full of crap and green" so they say, as they had water they were not neglected and could not do anything about it. I was disgusted to say the least, two hours later a local horse charity came along and sorted it out.

 

[katastrophykat]

I've not had any cause to deal with them regarding large animals- and I wouldn't, I'd call the BHS- but have called them about a ferret that my horse jumped on one day out riding- very tame, very hungry and very sweet! They refused to have anything to do with it, and (I'd called the local inspector) couldn't even suggest anyone that would take him- the blue cross were wonderful and he went he the next night with their receptionist. The vet called me to let me know the horse hadn't caused any lasting damage.

Three cute fluffy kittens abandoned at 2-3 weeks old? When I called (I was 18 and mum and dad at work) I was told they didn't have time for bottle feeding, didn't I know they were busy?? They then said (when I asked for advise about where to get pipettes for feeding them and what milk to use 'you might as well drown them now as you'll never do it right an you'll drown them anyway' I was disgusted and have never given money.

We are local to the Chester le Street horse care centre, and last year they took in a big rescue of mares and foals, so a local forum got together and delivered them hay/feed/Haylage/straw and any and all unwanted brushes, headcollars, rugs, anti rub bibs etc- basically anything that was of use on or for a horse. We took a wagon load down there and the staff were really chuffed.

 

[Silent Knight]

Nope, Ive reported a few neglect cases. They turned up but did nothing. When challenged they said that they only prosecute in very rare circumstances because it was too expensive. (unless it is a high profile case of course).

Where does all that money go?

 

[maxapple]

I phoned them a few years ago about a pony that was on its own in a small field absolutely full of ragwort. It must have been eating it, as it was almost impossible to see the grass. I also explained that no-one came down to check on it as far as we could see (local people filled up its water trough)

I didn't get a call back to let me know what had happened, but did see when I was driving past that a leaflet about ragwort had been tied to the gate - so I guess that is what action they took. (Considering I had explained no one came to see the pony - not that useful!!)

A few weeks later the pony 'escaped' and was taken in by someone local!

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

No, they are rubbish and make me very angry.

Both cases reported to them in the last year that they took no action about ended up with the horses dying in the appalling conditions they were left in by the RSPCA. In both cases RSPCA had decided they were fine to be left as they were.

Unless theres a mass rescue with TV cameras or a small fluffy involved, or political campaigning to be done, they arent interested.

 

[Honeylight]

When my Mum died I contacted them to help with catching her cat, that was semi-wild, & distressed, due to us clearing the house. They said when you've caught it we'll put it to sleep as we will never re-home it. It was too clever to go in their trap & in the end my friend managed to befriend it & it lived another 10 years a happy house cat.
I contacted them as I noticed a rabbit in the local park's Kids Zoo had mixy. The person was really rude & said "How do you know, are you a vet?" in a very sarcastic tone of voice. I told her that I hadn't always lived in a city & had seen it often while I was growing up, but I don't know whether they did anything for the poor rabbit.
I don't give them money any more. Some of the staff working in the shops are fanatics too & one nearby is also connected with Animal Aid & wants racing & horse sports banned.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

No. I will never call the RSPCA again.

Tiggywinkles and Shropshire Cat Rescue on the other hand have been fantastic.

 

[littlescallywag]

Not had any good experiences tbh

 

[mulledwhine]

Well said red wind - they also had enough money to donate £1000,000 to the labour party !!!!

 

[Silent Knight]

Well said red wind - they also had enough money to donate £1000,000 to the labour party !!!!

Omg! is that true?

 

[lout]

Check out this fella taken last Feb. RSPCA was told about this horse repeatedly by myself and several of my neighbours. In addition his owner has been reported several times in the past for other horses. This horse is 5 years old. After several weeks the RSPCA still hadnt been out. They also had no way of linking my complaints with my neighbours complaints or indeed had any record of this owners history with them in the past. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Eventually I contacted the Clydesdale Horse Society who instructed a vet to see to this horse straight away. The vet gave him a condition score of 1, he was riddled with worms, his feet were in very bad shape and he had at least a kilo of lice crawling over him.

Surprise surprise when this horse was wormed, deloused and fed for a month he picked up. Sadly the RSPCA never did chase up his elderly owner and so it will be interesting to see how the horse fares this winter.

I have no time for them at all.

 

[g16]

the person who commented regarding that they shouldnt be responsible for paying the vets bills i disagree. As they are a charity they are responsible for the animal. vets cannot afford to offer free care to animals etc. i know many vet practices who refuse to deal with the rspca unless its urgent and then only act as required to make the animal comfortable as the practice needs to make a living and survive. however the same practices will happily work with charities such as the dog trust who will pay the fees and make sure the dog is treated appropriately. i wonder where all the money goes as you would think most should be for vets bills for the injured animals etc.

 

[Rosehip]

Ive never had a good experience with them.
As farmers we have had them called on us to 'severely lame and distressed sheep' - the ewe had a touch of scould (which is like atheletes foot) between her claves and was walking fine - we have also had notices pinned to the gates during lambing time, when we called to see what they wanted they came straight out to us and started ranting on about dead sheep with their entrails hanging out in the field....turns out there was a ewe lambing (she wass up and happy with twins by they were berating us) and they thought she was dead and dismembered - we gave them a lesson on the birds and the bee's but I dont think the inspector was impressed!
I have also had them called to my guinea pigs - I used to breed and show them - apparantly they were in cramped cages with no ventilation and no food..... she kept asking where the 'others' were when I showed her my open plan sheds and breeding pens, and then when I showed her my prize winning chinchilla agouti (smoth coated gray brindle basically) she started asking why I was keeping a chinchilla with a guineapig...... took me AGES to explain that it WAS a guinepig!!!

I reported someone to them for the emaciated state of her ponies I was told that the animals were extreamely well looked after....when WHW went the next day they condition scored one at a '1' and the other at a 0.5 dispite having shavings beds up to their knees and a barn full of hay. Neurotic woman didnt want to over feed them!

I will never ever report, support or recommend the RSPCA, they arent worth the paper they are written on!

 

[paddy555]

another "no" I'm afraid. I rang them about 25 years ago about a pony that had been hit by a car and was in poor condition. They did come out and also sent a vet out. They got the owner round and then they gave the pony back to him.

The vet explained the owner had been prosecuted successfully for cruely and was in the middle of a 10 year ban on owning animals. So off the owner went leading his pony! Now how does that work????

 

[rascal]

Never had a possitive experience with them! Someone collecting for them made the big mistake of asking me for a donation, i told her exactly what i thought of them and why!!

 

[mulledwhine]

Rwtrnr- yes it is sadly true, when they first came to power , that was the day they lost any small amount of support they had from me!!!

 

[witchstick]

I have a family member working in the veterinary proffersion. They have no time for any animal, they just think about there own wages. Vets ask for help with paying with operations for cats and dogs and RSPCA just don't want to know.

Also another family member wanted a kitten from them, they were too needy and they wonder why they cannot rehome animals when demanding £85.00 for insurance for a cat and then £65.00 for a kitten. Better off to ask in a vets to rehome an unwanted pet.

 

[SonnysHumanSlave]

They micro-chipped my dog 2 weeks ago for £10 rather then the £30 that the vets wanted.

Oh and once there was a pigeon stuck in my hallway they came and removed it for me within a few hours.

 

[TallulahBright]

I reported a dealer after we'd been to look at a horse for sale. Guy in question was a relatively well thought of show jumper but when we got there he was beating a horse with a dummy on its back, it was practically on its knees but he said it was a 'bit of a bugger to break'. RSPCA went to visit then rang me to say all had seemed well and without video proof no action could betaken. Was horrified, yard was like nothing I'd leave my horse on etc etc.

 

[wowzer22]

2 years ago - I found a starling upside down stuck in our mesh peant feeder - with the lid partly caught around its neck, rung the RSPCA - they said in their own words 'Its only a bird and we we're too busy to come out at the moment'

So I promptly told them how disgusted I was on the phone! went outside, cut the feeder down, cut the bird free, put it in a secure container - with mesh over the top - it didn't seem injured just a bit bewildered! Kept it for a couple of days, fed it watered it....and let it go - after a few test flights round the garage!

Until I moved house recently it was still a regular visitor - I could tell it was the bird as it had one ligh coloured feather - very distinctive!