Feedback | 12 February 2005

RSPCA isn’t ‘anti-pets’

Jeremy Clarke’s article (‘Animals don’t have human rights’, 22 January) contains so many inaccuracies that it is virtually a fact-free zone.

It is absurd to suggest that the RSPCA has an ‘anti-pet agenda’. Caring for unwanted pet animals and re-homing them as pets is the principal work of the RSPCA’s 52 animal centres and many of the Society’s staff and volunteers; in 2003 the RSPCA found new homes for 69,956 animals. We also publish an extensive list of pet care booklets, the express purpose of which is to help people care for their pets. We have four animal hospitals and a number of clinics. We provided 263,155 subsidised or free treatments for pet animals in 2003 — and in many cases these vital treatments prevented animals from suffering or being euthanased due to owners’ lack of funds.

The assertion that the RSPCA’s policy on wild birds is to euthanase all but the most superficially injured is also utter nonsense. The Society’s practice is to treat injured birds (and other wildlife) unless to do so would result in further suffering for the bird which is disproportionate to the benefit it can gain from the treatment. That means we often treat very seriously ill birds. One small example: between 2000 and 2002 one RSPCA wildlife centre treated 1,491 mute swans injured by discarded fishing tackle. Most of them would have died without treatment, but 87 per cent were successfully released back to the wild.

Not a shred of evidence has ever been presented to support the claim that the RSPCA has given advice to suffocate young birds in a plastic bag. Despite repeated requests for any information about this allegation, none has been forthcoming. We can state categorically that there are no circumstances in which the RSPCA would approve of such advice being given.