RSPCA - what rights do they have?

minesadouble

minesadouble

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As regards entering property - can you chase them and make them return with some kind of warrant?
A girl at our yard is being what I would term as 'harassed' by them - some of the liveries have fallen out with her and have called the RSPCA 3 times about different horses of hers.
Her horses were pretty lean as they have all wintered out but I certainly wouldn't have termed them emaciated, they are putting weight on now as they are on decent grass but surely the RSPCA should have clicked on that this was some kind of vendetta??
 
Personally If I was her I would let them come and have a look. If there is no problem then she has nothing to be threatened about. This would put a stop to the other liveries as well.

They can bring the police with them if needs be so its not really worth a confrontation surely??
 
Every time they have a complaint - they have to follow it up. So, as Spaniel says, if she has nothing to worry about there shouldn't be a problem. She certainly isn't being harrassed by the RSPCA - they are just doint their job.
 
But after coming out twice you would think they would have realised what's going on when the (presumably) same people rang and lodged ANOTHER complaint? - if that was the Police they would now be considering taking some action against the complainants for wasting their time. I know the RSPCA are not the brightest bunch but surely even they should be able to grasp what's going on!
 
Perhaps the RSPCA are returning to check that your friend is doing what she said she would on their first visit.

If the RSPCA went to check on ponies you had complained about and believed that xyz was 'going' to be done, wouldn't you want them to go back and check xyz had been done?

I'm not suggesting your friend in anyway isn't caring for her horses but some one thought that standards had slipped enough to warrant calling the RSPCA.

In answer to your question though. Under the new legislation the RSPCA don't have wait until 'unnecessary suffering' has occured, they can intervene before now.
 
I ditto the above
I would welcome any RSPCA inspection and I have nothing to worry about and give my horses the very best care.

at the end of the day there here to try protect animals and they seem to do a brilliant job of it too!

it's very annoying that people waste the rspca's time with nasty comments and vendetta's

Hope all sort's it's self out
 
People on here are usually complaining about the RSPCA not following up reports, so at least they are doing something. Could your friend not show them that the horses are fine and at the same time mention she thinks she is subject to a vendetta. One point (and I'm prepared to be shot down here), I am sure loads of people on the forum have horses who have wintered out and aren't "pretty lean". Is it worth giving your friend some feeding advice before next winter?
 
All depends on how serious they look at the case....sometimes if you become a pain and keep calling them they might come out to have a look but I have experienced cases in the past where they would only come out if the problem was serve...
I think with this girl, unless her horses were extremely thin, hooves in a state and looked very ill then they would react but most of the time they give warnings - thats if they do come out...I feel the RSPCA have so much on their plates and unfortunately tend to miss most things.
 
We fell out with our neighbours and then received loads of visits from the RSPCA, HAPPA & ILPH - all of whom said ponies were all in good condition and couldn't see why they had been called.

We made it clear to the ILPH officer that we thought it was the neighbours reporting us and after he checked it the with RSPCA he couldn't 'officially' confirm it was the neighbours but could confirm it was the same people who had reported us. He then went back and made it clear to whoever reported us that it could be seen as harrasment and if any more reports were made then the police would be involved.

It annoys me that people waste charities time and money just to fight silly little battles.
 
I have to admit I am very anti-RSPCA and that's why we don't want them on the place! In my experience they are clueless about large animals (maybe OK for cats & dogs though I wouldn't bank on it!!) and if they want to retain charitable status shouldn't have spent so much money on a political hot-potato like foxhunting!
 
"I am sure loads of people on the forum have horses who have wintered out and aren't "pretty lean". Is it worth giving your friend some feeding advice before next winter? "

I have horses that winter out myself and T.B.H. some do better than others outside. I think part of the problem is a bit of 'bunny hugging' mentality - native ponies especially are actually meant to lose condition over the winter in order for them not to become obese when the good spring grass comes through - I think people who are new to horses find this a bit of an alien concept - on our place we have liveries who rug shetlands up!!! - even our vet has bollocked them but they tend to 'humanise' their horses and think "oh it's raining - little Bobby needs a coat on" Getting away from the point a bit but am just trying to say that a lean horse is better than a fatty - being a bit thin wont kill a pony - being obese just might!
 
Yes, I agree with you there. I have a native 12hh who has cushings. I always try to reduce her weight during winter so spring isn't quite such a nightmare. It was just the fact you said all her horses were pretty lean I'd got the false impression they were quite poor. My mistake, so as I said in my earlier post would suggest she tells the RSPCA about this vendetta.
 
If this is a personal vendetta then getting angry and trying to stop the RSPCA seeing the animals is playing into the hands of the people making the claims.

Smiling, being polite and helpful to the officers and having nothing to hide will soon make the act of calling the RSPCA pointless.

What others have said the RSPCA do have to follow up each complaint. I used to run a small livery yard within a equine charity yards (I helped out at the charity as well). I had to kick a livery off the yard for general trouble making and non-payment of bills. She then proceeded make a complaint to the RSPCA regarding a horse (on the charity yard) with mudfever. This was a charity that actually took RSPCA horses occasionally and had a senior RSPCA official as one of its Patrons! But they still had to investigate!
 
the livery concerned won't be told who has complained about them - so any defence she may make about 'bitching' will be ignored

however if it is timewasting and the rspca bring the police up there is a charge of wasting police time

the rspca under the new animal welfare bill can issue an 'improvement notice' telling the animal owner what is wrong with the animal and/or their care of the animal and giving them a specified time to improve the situation

tbh there is little she can do to defend herself other than have the horses in tip-top condition to shut these serial complainers up
 
As far as I am aware the RSPCA haven't issued any kind of formal notices or passed negative comments about the horses in question - though they may have done so and I am unaware - but I just thought that having been called out repeatedly for no real reason they would have been looking to maybe take some action with regard to false accusations.
Many years ago (when I was still at school,) I remember my mother calling the RSPCA about a field of 4 emaciated T.B. mares - not exaggerating to call them walking skeletons - and no action was taken at all!
 
that was under the old animal welfare act

the new one came into force on 6th april this year and I was at a joint Vet/RSPCA/ILPH lecture about 3 weeks ago - my vets practice in 'rich' surrey in a 20 mile radius dealt with **3** serious welfare cases (that is cases, where there could be more than one horse per case) per month last year - and that was the ones they could touch under the old act

under the new act they can get into and deal with LOTS more cases

However the issuance of an 'improvement' notice came directly from the RSPCA and ILPH officers at the lecture. Unless there is blatent and very serious issues they are trying to get owners to improve and to educate them before taking the animals away/prosecuting (obviously legal action costs so the ILPH/RSPCA money goes further if they can get the owners to do things right)
 
I used to run a holiday trekking centre, and had the RSPCA called to a horse 'whose leg had been cut off, and then he had been sprayed with graffiti, and was being victimised by starvation'.
I had taken in a grass livery whose previous owner had died, and he had become emaciated, and we were gradually increasing his access to hay and grass as his system could cope whereas all the others were out in the lush fields and were, well, fatties.
The missing leg was still attached, and the 'graffiti' was turquoise antiseptic spray where he had scraped his forearm against the fence....
The RSPCA saw the funny side, and we invited the BHS welfare chappie to come visit - he was amazed how well the horses looked and asked us for feeding hints!
They're only doing their job....
S :-)
 
I dont have a lot of time for the RSPCA either but in this situaiton I would invite the RSPCA to inspect the horses.

If we expect them to action on genuine complaints then we cant really argue if they want to inspect to determine genuine from malicious complaints.

If things are as you say then they can move on quickly to the next, quite possibly, genuine complaint instead of wasting time trying to see your friends horses.
 
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I think part of the problem is a bit of 'bunny hugging' mentality - native ponies especially are actually meant to lose condition over the winter in order for them not to become obese when the good spring grass comes through

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Are they??? Native ponies actually evolved to do well on very poor grazing, and so in their natural habitat would never have access to 'lush' grazing.

We have horses that winter out - and quite often are fatter going in to spring than comming out of summer due to the adlib haylage they get through the winter months. So to a point do actually agree with the other poster who commented on the fact that there was no particular reason for them to come out of winter looking 'pretty lean'. So maybe the concerns are valid and not the result of any malice??
 
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

If the SSPCA or RSPCA get it wrong who are they answerable to?

NOBODY!

There is no Oftel, Ofgov or other body you can go to if they get things wrong.

The inspector we have here is not fit to investigate anything. He is aggresive and makes threats to innocent people.........me being one of them!

During a cruelty case, where I nursed a mare back to her feet, I was threatened by him, that if I said anything to anybody he'd come after me!!1 great, what's he going to do, plant dead horses on me?
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After that kind of liaison, he doesn't set foot on my property. I will deal only with police....with a warrant! CORRECTLY filled out!
 
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People on here are usually complaining about the RSPCA not following up reports, so at least they are doing something. Could your friend not show them that the horses are fine and at the same time mention she thinks she is subject to a vendetta. One point (and I'm prepared to be shot down here), I am sure loads of people on the forum have horses who have wintered out and aren't "pretty lean". Is it worth giving your friend some feeding advice before next winter?

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We had 7 winter out,from yearling to 23 year old. All of whom looked perfect. Hoefully she will make sure the same mistake isn't made again.
 
"Are they??? Native ponies actually evolved to do well on very poor grazing, and so in their natural habitat would never have access to 'lush' grazing"

Yes they are - whilst in the wild they wouldn't have access to lush managed pasture , spring grass even where it looks sparse is nutritionally rich - all grazing animals will of course naturally 'go back' in the winter.
I have a retired pony (stabled) who has had one bout of laminitis prior to my owning him and I purposely try to knock him back in condition before the grass comes through.
 
They are lot aloud to enter property without police escort unless the owner invites them on.
I for one wouldn't without Police present so everything correctly recorded. As in the papers the other day & "new" neighbour saw a cat climb into their garden so phoned the rspca who came & took the cat away. Within 2 hrs of him picking it up he killed the cat in his garden without any attempt to find the owners. Who only lived nxt door to where he had picked it up.

My friend as a yad full of Dales. She has a footpath through her top field. They live out 24/7 no rugs. one day rspca turned up as someone in the village had complained. She took them up to the field. rspca officer said that they were all in good nick bar one that was a bit thin. Till friend pointed out that that one was a yearling!! rspca officer said well in that case it is fat!!
 
I cant imagine the RSPCA are "harassing" her. Surely its the other liveries doing this by calling them all the time. The RSPCA are just doing their job.

If I were her, Id invite them in with open arms and let them see the horses. If she has nothing to hide then I don't see the problem? Then the RSPCA can report back to the others that the horses are fine.

I dont believe native ponies are "meant" to lose condition over the winter...... Like AmyMay says, they'd never get "lush" grass in the wild. I dont think any horse SHOULD be "pretty lean" simply because they've "wintered out". My horses winter out but none of mine get lean! One of mine is always slim but that's simply his build, he doesn't change weight all year round. If all her horses are pretty lean then Id wonder why they are. Aren't they rugged and fed well enough?
 
I am not a massive fan of the RSPCA, but I must stress that this is down to their LACK of powers. Sure some of them may be numpties, but essentailly most of the officers hearts are in the right place. Until the government actually starts to work hand in glove with our welfare charities they will always be doing a difficult job.

Sorry, I know this diverts somewhat from the original post - and I have in the past had a real go at the RSPCA both personally and on here. However, the fact remains that if people are concerned about an animal more often than not this is their first point of call and they do do some good.

However, for real action hero's watch Animal Plant Animal Cops - magic!
 
Whilst in the wild they wouldn't have access to lush managed pasture, spring grass even where it looks sparse, is nutritionally rich - all grazing animals will of course naturally 'go back' in the winter. Repeated that statement in case was missed - so are you saying that a horse/pony being lean is cruel???
I struggle hugely to keep the weight off my 4 welshies and T.B. X I.D. and believe me it's a nightmare having ponies/horses that are natural 'fatties' I would far rather mine were on the lean side than on the obese side - it's much easier to put weight on them than get it off. And lean isn't dangerous - fat is!!
 
Believe me you are preaching to the converted - the RSPCA last year ensured that one of our calves endured a bit extra suffering before being unnecessarily shot - a job well done!
 
I'd have a chat to her and say she should invite them to see the horses and have vet present and be nice - if she explains that she thinks they are being called out deliberately and people are wasting their time to pick on her, but they are welcome to come and see the horses and she has nothing to hide, hopefully the RSPCA will send the complainants away with a flea in their ear for harassment of they try again.
 
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