RSPCA "stealing food from the mouths" of Scottish animals

by mudricky | February 3, 2009 at 03:18 am

1365 views | 38 Recommendations | 7 comments

The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) have began an advertising campaign to highlight a problem they feel they have with another animal Charity.

The Scottish SPCA adverts have a pop at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) because they take donations from people in Scotland even though they can’t help any Scottish animals.

They only operate in England & Wales but last year ran high profile RSPCA campaigns in Scotland including a membership drive in Scottish supermarkets and adverts on Scottish radio stations.

Scottish SPCA chief executive Stuart Earley said research showed 70% of Scots wrongly believed the RSPCA saves animals in Scotland.

Their full-page ads in Scottish newspapers today show an emaciated dog under the slogan: "The RSPCA won't save me." and text "stealing food from the mouths of Scotland's animals".

Scottish SPCA Chief Executive Stuart Earley said, "Many people do not know that the RSPCA does not rescue or rehome any animals in Scotland and by advertising here it has been intentionally adding to the confusion to make money.

"The RSPCA is in breach of Institute of Fundraising guidelines it helped draw up which require charities to be explicitly clear about where they work. Occasionally using small print to tell the Scottish public it is registered in England and Wales is in no way explicit.

"We are a completely separate charity and have asked the RSPCA to make it clear it does not save animals in Scotland so people can make an informed choice about who to donate to. However, after six months of talks we are no further forward.

"This has been increasing the huge pressure on our resources for many years and enough is enough. It's time the RSPCA told the truth.

"Further RSPCA advertising has included television adverts on UK channels. While these particular adverts cannot be restricted to England and Wales, they should not deceive the Scottish public.

"We are therefore calling for the RSPCA to be explicitly clear in its advertising that it does not rescue or rehome animals in Scotland.

"This could be by explicitly stating where it works or even describing itself as the ‘RSPCA for England and Wales'. Either would clear up the confusion almost immediately.

"We are also calling for the RSPCA to at all times make it clear to anyone donating from Scotland that their donation will not help animals in their country.

"This should extend to any legacies it receives made out to the ‘Scottish RSPCA' or ‘RSPCA Scotland'. We believe these should come to us and be used to care for animals in Scotland but even this basic and fair principle has been rejected."

The Scottish SPCA was founded in Edinburgh in 1839 to improve the welfare of cart-horses. Over time the charity grew.

It now has 12 animal welfare centres which treat over 15,000 animals a year.

There is one major difference between the Scottish SPCA and the RSPCA, the Scottish SPCA fulfil a semi-judicial status and has a similar status to the police in Scotland in that it is a reporting agency to the Crown Office.

Scottish SPCA

The Scottish SPCA, founded in 1839, is Scotland's largest and oldest animal welfare organisation.

It receives no government or lottery funding and relies on public donations.

Celebrity supporters include actor Tony Roper, whose friend Ricky Fulton and his wife Kate left the society around £1m after their deaths.

It currently costs £27,600 per day to keep the society running, or £10.1m a year.

The Scottish SPCA funds 54 inspectors, 10 ambulance drivers and seven auxiliary inspectors.

Last year it responded to almost 125,000 calls, and attended more than 38,000 incidents and rescues.

It has 13 animal welfare centres, including Glasgow Dog and Cat Home in Cardonald, Bothwell Bridge in Hamilton and Milton in Dumbarton. Last year these offered refuge to more than 12,500 injured, abused and neglected pets, farm and wild animals each year.

In 2008 the Scottish SPCA lodged 163 cases with the procurator-fiscal, resulting in 48 people being fined and 30 banning orders, including four life bans.

Each inspector is trained in animal first aid and the law, and also learns to abseil, rock climb and handle a boat.

RSPCA

Established in 1824 as the SPCA, the RSPCA was allowed to add the word "Royal" to its name in 1840 by permission of Queen Victoria. The society's patron is The Queen and vice-patron is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The organisation receives no government or lottery funding and relies on public donations.

Celebrity supporters include singers Mel C and Louise Redknapp, author Jilly Cooper (both pictured right) and actor Andrew Sachs.

In 2007 the charity raised around £114m in legacies and donations. The same year it cost £82m to run the society.

The society receives more than one million phone calls a year and employs 323 inspectors and 146 animal collection officers.

The RSPCA has 172 branches in England and Wales, as well as run a further 38 clinics and 33 animal centres.

During 2006 the charity investigated more than 120,000 cruelty complaints and helped secure more than 1600 convictions against 898 defendants. Unlike in Scotland, where the Scottish SPCA are official reporters to the crown, these convictions were secured by private prosecution.

Scotland's biggest animal charity has launched a scathing attack on its English counterpart, accusing the RSPCA of "stealing food from the mouths of Scotland's animals".
The Scottish SPCA believes the English charity deliberately raises funds north of the border, despite the fact it does not operate in Scotland and has refused to clarify the issue on its publicity material.

The charity says it could not put an exact figure on how much money it has lost over the years in mistaken donations, but admitted it was likely to be millions. Their latest figures revealed 70% of Scots believed the RSPCA helped animals in Scotland.

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158

at 15:01 on February 3rd, 2009

This is a disgrace. They are supposed to save animals.

Amy Judd

at 15:10 on February 3rd, 2009

This is terrible - I had no idea. How disgraceful - can't they just have one donation point that then can be divided up? Isn't it about what is best for the animals?

mudricky

at 15:44 on February 3rd, 2009

If they were the same charity they prob would split a pot but I'd guess they'd never agree amounts to split.

Nicola Burns (not verified)

at 05:02 on February 4th, 2009

I donate money each month to the SSPCA. I want this money to help animals in Scotland, it's not that I care any less for animals down south but there are less people donating here so we should keep the funding here surely?!

ClanUrbex

at 15:19 on February 5th, 2009

Please support the SSPCA:)

ClanUrbex has contributed a photo to this story.

food (not verified)

at 12:45 on February 19th, 2009

If The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA)is running a charity for sick animals down he south then they should make it clear that they are using there funds to help animals down the south rather than helping down in the Scotland. due to this misunderstanding people would get a false knowledge that they are donating for needy animals of Scotland . am even not in the support of the split but yet there should a better mid way solution to the problem .

thanks for liftin the curtain from the eyes of the person that were giving donation .

Knowledge (not verified)

at 13:34 on February 23rd, 2009

Its really hard to get some valuable knowledge for your pets..Now a days the doctors too don't give their full time to the pets they are curing.. I don't whether its with me only or with anybody who loves pets that I become impatient after sometime after I get no response..