Emergency Welfare Telephone Numbers

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PeterNatt

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From Letter of the Week Page 10 of Horse and Hound 28 December 2012
"A neighbour with a field adjoining mine allowed "friends" to dump an undernourished pony on her land on a Sunday, with assurances that the owner would collect it the following weekend.
Six days later the condition of the pony had deteriorated so much that I attempted to reach its owners via my neighbour. My calls were never returned. When Sunday morning came the poor animal had died.
It was then that the Monday to Friday culture of thos responsible for animal welfare became apparent. World Horse Wellfare has a hotline phone number on its website that sounded encouraging except that you quickly learn it operates only during office hours Monday to Friday.
Next was the RSPCA, whose phone was never answered. A helpful vet supplied another number for that charity, which was answered by a man who took every detail. He finaly told me to report the mater on Monday to DEFRA. He then asked if I would like to make a donation for his organisation's help.
A call to the police was answered by a sympathetic lady who also took all the details and promised to investigate and call back. True to her word she did, but only to confirm that, in lieu of the owners involvement, the only organbisation to turn to was DEFRA but not until Monday.
In the meantime an animal lay dead in a field - neglected to the end".
Sue Sheppard East Grinstead Sussex
 
How awful :( poor little thing. Canterbury horse rescue in Kent have welfare officers and they are 24/7 they are amazing people doing a fantastic job
 
When I had couse to ring welfare organisations I had not response at all even through I left a message on the answer phone. It confirmed my suspisipn that they are not interested unless there is cameras
 
:rolleyes:
honetpot said:
When I had couse to ring welfare organisations I had not response at all even through I left a message on the answer phone. It confirmed my suspisipn that they are not interested unless there is cameras
Click to expand...

First of all, the RSPCA have a call centre which ALWAYS answers calls, however, with all call centres, it may take time to get through to speak to somebody due to the volume of calls going through each day. So, it depends on how patient and how bothered the caller is to hang on and wait for the answer. Either this person didn't bother waiting to get through, or they rang one of the local RSPCA branches, which are just rehoming shelters, have nothing whatsoever to do with complaints of cruelty, and only will have a normal telephone answered by members of staff. So, of course, it may have rung and rung and rung with no answer. Had they have rung the National number, they would have gone through various options, and been put on a holding system.

With regard charities not being interested unless cameras are involved, I get sick of hearing people automatically jumping to this conclusion. Do you have any idea the amount of calls that are logged each day, and the amount of complaints an officer has to get to each day, not to mention collections and rescues,and the amount of miles that person has to drive to get to them all? I know for a fact that the areas which each RSPCA and WHW officer covers is immense - and they can be driving up to and over 250 miles per shift to get from one job to another. Just because somebody has to wait to get an answer on the bleedin telephone does not mean that the charity in question 'OBVIOUSLY MUST ONLY CARE IF A CAMERA IS AROUND'! :rolleyes:

I do get the impression sometimes that people get this idea in their head that a welfare officer sits behind a desk waiting for the phone to ring, before hopping to their feet, and rushing to the only call they have had all day long.
 
I would suggest that the welfare organisations have an automated message on their phones to advise people that calls will be answered but there may be a delay or that alternatively callers call leave a message and they will be called back within one hour. They could also advise callers who are holding how many calls are being held before their call. This way callers will know that the phone will be answered or alternatively they can leave a message for a call back.
 
The bhs have about 200 welfare representatives around the country, mostly volunteers who list their mobile number or you can use their emergency number listed on the bhs website?

They are there to help with this but often get overlooked for their provision of exams or insurance!
 
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I am sorry I truely beleave this.
I have called the RSPCA many years ago about some ponies I was concerned about and
had a very poor response, on this occasion the computer was down so the call handler could not even log the call and her lack of response was such I thought it was a waste of time ringing back. I rang the WWF twice in office hours and left a message on the answer phone, no response.
I rang the BHS,the lady I spoke to was charming but could offer no help. I rang REdwings which is a relively small charity but they offered to send someone out even though I was not in their area.
I have to smile when people say ring the RSPCA or the BHS as in reality they can offer or give no real help. As long as the animals are standing have water and have a condition score above 1 diddly squat will happen.
We should forget the inffective comfort blanket of the RSPCA, horses would have more safety being looked after by DEFRA, if you have livestock you are checked by envromentel health even if they only worried about the human food chain.
 
I read the letter in Horse and Hound. Didn't understand why the writer would contact a welfare organisation when the poor horse was already beyond help. Still haven't figured it out. Am I missing something?
 
When I had reason to call them over a neglected, starving horse, the RSPCA were USELESS!
The BHS welfare on the other hand were great!
Someone should seriously do something about the RSPCA. Any organisation that can waste however many millions it was to take the
 
The RSPCA are still the only welfare organisation to my knowledge that has the expertise to be able to assist with prosecutions. As far as I understand it, Equine charities work with RSPCA whenever there is a need for a prosecution because they don't have legal teams, so much though many of us have been frustrated by our experiences of the RSPCA, without them people like James Grey would still be in posession of over 100 neglected horses. Just because we on HHO may be pro-foxhunting doesn't mean the RSPCA should not pursue the Heythrop Hunt for flouting the law. By the same token they shouldn't pursue cases of dog fighting and cock baiting because some people don't agree with it being illegal. Yes, prosecutions are incredibly expensive, but without them animal welfare, equine cases included, would suffer greatly.

I do feel that we need welfare organisations to be available 24/7 but I am unsure if they could have done anything about this poor horse, if the owner could not be reached. They are still incredibly bound by the law :(
 
I agree we do need an organisation capable of prosecution, just not the shambles that is the RSPCA!
One that actually does something and looks further than the end of its nose would be a start!
If that was the case then the likes of James Grey would be stopped in their tracks long before it gets to the stage where it was allowed to with him!
 
I too don't understand why they watched the pony fading away in front of their eyes then tried to involve the organisations afterwards

Presumably they wanted the body disposed of though I guess a generous person would say they wanted the owners to be held accountable

The last time I called the RSPCA I was immediately greeted with a voice recording of situations they won't deal with and on selecting various options more recordings of stuff they don't want to know about. When I got the situation dealt with ( by a vet at my own expense) I sat down and tried to figure out what the RSPCA would deal with but gave up as my head hurt!

I've no doubt the people on the ground have passion and dedication but the RSPCA has grown in to a huge business accountable to no one it seems and I think it's got too unwieldy for it's own good
 
honetpot said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/co...s-being-destroyed-by-a-militant-tendency.html
So they are not interested in the cameras.
Click to expand...

Who has ever said they 'are not' interested in cameras?!! Of course they are, they are a charity funded by donations solely, so they need to get some press out there. They are fully entitled to advertise you know! ;)

Plus, you do realise that the press themselves often ask the courts what cases are coming up for trial, and will pick and choose which ones they attend and report on, and it doesn't take Einstein to work out they are going to pick out the controversial or the high profile ones does it?!:rolleyes:
 
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