my experience with the RSPCA!!!!

aregona

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well, unfortunatly i have been working nights and riding and have somehow missed all of whats going on. But i thought some of you may be interested in my experience and you can make your own mind up as to what you think.

1o years ago we moved to south wales and wanted another dog so we went to the RSPCA. they came and did a home check and refused to allow us to adopt as we did not have a 'suitable garden', they didn't mention the 8 aches of well fenced fields.

6 months later i retired my mare so my mum and i (14 yrs old at the time) went off to the RSPCA stables to look at some horses to rehome. I found a beatiful TB mare. They wouldn't alow her to be rehomed immediatly as they wanted to do more work with her which was fine. So my mum took me over every other day to brush and lunge her and get to know her. I adored her, we got on so well. this went on for 6 WEEKS!!!!! when they phone me one day and told me over the phone that i could no longer adopt this mare as the RSPCA did think a TB was suitable for an under 18. They offered me a 7yr old, just gelded 14hh welsh cob. just great for a 5'6'' eventing mad teenager. I was heart broken at not having the TB and that was the last time i attempted to adopt a horse.
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Then 2 local horses were very thin, being used as driving horses. I called the RSPCA.........heard nothing...........called again.........heard nothing..........3 weeks later (in the middle of winter) the horses were very bad so i got fed up, went to the owners house with an address of a field and suggested the horses would look better if they had food. luckily he was very good and agreed the horses looked bad and moved them. A week later (4 weeks in total) the RSPCA rang me back to ask the address. said the RSPCA officer had been away!!!

Next i had a call from concerned friends at 9.30am who said the horse across the road was alseep against a gate??
I went down and the horse had sever colic and in desperate need of a vet. Nobody new the owner so we tried the RSPCA who said they would send a vet PROVIDING we made a donation, which we did!!! 1 hour later no sign of a vet, horse was in a lot of pain and i was beginning to think it should be destroyed. Rung the RSPCA who said they would send a vet as soon as one was available. 1 hour later, still no vet so i rung mine who were with us within 20 mins and manage to save the horse.
the RSPCA vet finally arrived at 3pm and went to the address of my friends to ask why a vet had been called as the horse looked fine. well of course it did because my vet treated it!!!!!!!
the owners (when we found them ) were eternally greatful, paid the vets bill and left a telephone number with my friends incase it ever happend again.

Then last year my mum rung, she had done a house inspection, the tenants were leaving (for their own safety) did not have time to rehome their 3 dogs, one of them with 6 three day old puppies. The tenants had rung the RSPCA who refused to take the animals and said they had no room for them. So the tenants had left all the animals behind. mum didn't know what to do with them so we collected them all and took them home. The dogs really hadn't been well looked after and were in the stables with the mum and 6 pups in my tackroom.
Unfortunalty but expectedly the mother bacme agressive and refused to let me in the tackroom through fear for her pups. I called the RSPCA who said they would come out and destroy the dog. I tolf them i just wanted her moved to a stable so i could get my tack and they said it wasn't suitable she needed to be destroyed.
I rung the dogs trust they wouldn't help, i rung the dog warden they wouldn't help. I only wanted help to move her safely.
So i rung the vets, they could not belive the lack of support so they rung the RSPCA and dog warden, gave them and anormous earfull, the RSPCA still wanted to put the dod down meaning her 6 pups would have no mother. But the dog warden came out, put the poll on her and she came out, we moved the pups, put her back in and once she had spent half hour with me whilst mum and dog warden moved the pups, she gained enough trust that that was the end of the problem. the dog warden supplied us with vouchers to get every dog 'done'. the pups and one other dog was rehomed and the other dog and the mother were kept as our family pets.
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So i can safely say my experince with the RSPCA has been a colourful one to say the least. let me know if you have had good or bad experiences, i think it will be very interesting.

wine and blackberry cheese cake if you made it this far
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I personally have never had a positive experience with the RSPCA and horses. In a nearby village there were four horses living on a scrap yard. One mare had a foal who had never seen the farrier and consequently could barely walk he had such bad feet. There was no grass and no hay. We took photos of the horses to take to the RSPCA (the local farmer saw them and thought that one was a cow from behind, she was so thin!
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) The RSPCA officer visited the horses but because they had water refused to do anything. Me and my friend took them hay when we could but soon got in a lot of trouble for trespassing. The mare and foal died and I dont know what happened to the other two. It made me so angry because these were very friendly and social horses who needlessly died because nobody took proper action! I have actually started crying now thinking about them
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I personally have never had a positive experience with the RSPCA and horses.

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I had a good result with a badger!
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I found a poor sod in my field who had obviously been banished from the sett. I'd guess hit by a car, paralysed in the back legs, mangey as all hell! I thought he was dead at first and poked him with a stick (I'm not stupid) and he whirled up at the speed of light and dug his teeth into the stick and refused to let go - screaming in rage and pain. I SHOULD have hit him over the head with a shovel - but THAT would be unlawful!
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So I rang the RSPCA - expecting nothing. In barely an hour, I had a very nice lass arrive who competently transferred the badger to a crate, stroked a few handy horses and admired them, and took herself and badger off to 'a quiet place' to do the necessary! AND it was a Sunday!! I confess I was impressed with that. NOT at ALL impressed with SO many other cases!!
 
I'm sorry to read of your bad experiences , but are you not expecting rather a lot? moving a dog and treating a horse for colic. These are not jobs for the RSPCA, these are not neglected/mistreated cases.
Sorry, MO only.
 
Another one here with no positive response.

1.Aunties old dog was found wandering the lane that they lived on. A lane with only 3 houses on it......new home owner didn't know Taff so phoned RSPCA they came out, took him to the centre and put him down all within 2 hours!!! Aunty got back from work phoned round police, rspca, sanctuarys et al only to find out he was gone.

2.Found a gosling OUTSIDE Rspca coventry. Picked him up and took him into them. They told me to put him back as he would find his mum or water. For those that don't know RSPCA centre is on a busy road. Gosling couldn't even jump up the kerb. I took him to a chap in Wythall and he had him. As far as I know the gosling is still going strong!

3.Mum found a fox cub in garden. He had obviously been poisoned and was tiny. He was violently ill and foaming. RSPCA response? Let nature take its course as its vermin!! YEP actually referred to the poor mite as vermin. We took him to vets to have him humanely destroyed. Vet charged us nothing and didn't have a good word to say about them.

4.Friend took on a horse who was in a bad way, really bad. TBH we thought that we were just helping him die with dignity. RSPCA came to yard and wanted to prosecute and remove him for the state he was in. Friend had had him 7 DAYS!! She is a good horsewoman but even she couldn't perform miracles.
The reason she had him in the first place?????? RSPCA would not go out to him and she was alerted by joe public and went and bought him for £10! Five years later he is the picture of health and constantly doing her proud even though she expects nothing from him!
 
I called them once to a Swan I found out hacking. Clearly wasn't right. The RSPCA wouldn't go out and said it was probably pining for a lost mate. I told them we rode right up to it and it didn't react at all...they still wouldn't go out. I left it 2 days then called again to say it was still there. Eventually they sent someone out and it transpired it was tangled in fish net (you couldn't tell this by looking as it was all underneath) and very thin. So...they were slow but did go out. I guess they thought at first I was over-reacting and I guess they get a lot of this. WHW were out at my yard following a member of the public saying they had no food?????????? Of course they had food and were all the right weight.
On the other hand the SSPCA (nothing to do with the RSPCA...they act in Scotland only) who I have called 5 times were brilliant every time. Out within an hour..even for an injured seagull. They also did a huge amount towards getting cat and dog fur imports banned into the UK. I give them £5 a month....as well as The Brooke. The RSPCA could learn a lot from them I think.
I totally feel though that a lot of the time the law causes them problems. I also know they get bad press for destroying animals but they normally have no choice. And for the record a captive bolt is humane.
 
I have no time for them at all. Its prosecutions they are interested in,to bring in funds to keep them selves in a job,the sanctimonious hypocrits! The last thing they want to do is risk spending all that lovely money on welfare.Shootit then prosecute,all the way.
 
OMG!!! Your poor Auntie! RIP poor dog, what a horrendous incident!
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I'd never give the RSPCA money again, after some of the tales I've heard.

I suppose you've all heard the one about them taking city foxes, who've only ever hunted dustbins, and transferring them to their 'natural' environment in the country? Poor beggars have to be shot by gamekeepers as they just starve - wouldn't know what a rabbit was for if it popped up and bit them!!
 
these are all sad stories, i was hoping it was maybe just my area.

Just out of interest ref Donklet's comments, what should i have done when i was told a horse had colic and was suffering???? Is the RSPCA job to stop suffering whether intentional or not???? so is colic not suffering?????? and would it of been kind of me to walk away?????? or can we all go around calling vets running the risk of being given a bill for an emergency call out on a sunday morning?????
 
I dont 'do' the RSPCA as im in scotland and almost foam at the mouth when adverts come on TV not mentioning that they only operate in engladn and wales. SSPCA have always been brilliant IMO. donated today when i was in P@H. OH nearly died off when i took £10 off him. I think he thought i was going to take the change out his hand lol
 
My old dog disappeared once. We phoned round every dog warden/ home/ RSPCA we could, to no avail. The RSPCA told us they'd not had a liver and white spaniel in in months. That was the monday.

We phoned daily for six days, on the seventh they decided to tell us they had a 'brown and white spaniel type' but that it had to be collected that day before they closed. so we rushed off to them, only to find our pedigree springer in their kennel. the kennel maid tld us he'd been there since the previous monday.

The worst bit?

He was microchipped.

Local farmer (who breeds horses) had a dead horse in his field for over two weeks. His other horses were milling about it. RSPCA were called (not by me), and refused to come out.
In the end another farmer marched up there and kindly demanded he have the animal removed as it stank to high heaven.
 
Wigglypigs - agree with you on the advertising. The SSPCA got the RSPCA in big trouble for advertising up here and again no mention that they only operate South of the Border. Like you I think the SSPCA do a great job.
 
In my experience, unless Rolf Harris is there with microphone and camera to heap universal praise on them and national recognition.........They don't give a monkeys.
 
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In my experience, unless Rolf Harris is there with microphone and camera to heap universal praise on them and national recognition

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I was told as much myself by the RSPCA themselves.......
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Earlier today I viewed a video clip sent to me over the weekend. It featured 9 horses being euthanased in a slaughterhouse, using a captive bolt.
The film was horrendous! All 9 horses required between 2 and 5 'shots' to render them 'unconcious, with one first being 'shot' in the shoulder in order to quieten it sufficiently to perform the head 'shot'.

This was film from a slaughterhouse, but I shudder to wonder if the RSPCA manage to get it right, first time, everytime they have opportunity to use there latest 'toy'!

There appears to be some evidence to suggest some dogs have not been euthanased first time by this process. If this is the case, is it not a direct contradiction of the RSPCA's 'caring roll'?

Oh and before the pro brigade start, over the years I've taken dogs destined for 'death row', which have in turn made excellent family pets!
 
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