Haylesbury on the RSPCA (RSPCA in general)

Member Name: haylesbury

Product:	RSPCA in general
Date:	30/10/06 (332 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Just look at your own pets and imagine cruelty on them. The RSPCA saves these animals

Disadvantages: Its emotional going there. Not that this is really a bad thing, shouldn't stick our heads in sand!!

Quickly introduce myself and then get down to business! As a child a friend of mine had a mum worknig for the RSPCA and due to my love of animals from an early age I spent most weekends at the RSPCA helping out. Well I hope I was helping! I was a young child so I probably spent a lot of time asking too many questions and getting in the way aswell! Since then I have gained qualificaitons in the animal sector including gaining a distinction in my studies of animal collections. (Organisations, businesses etc which work in the industry of animals). This enabled me to re visit and remember times within the RSPCA and also gain insight into other animal collections which allows a fair comparison to be made. The information below is from my experience and research and if you have any further questions please feel free to e-mail me on Sh02020998@hotmail.co.uk. Thanks and enjoy!

RSPCA

Although Re-homing and preventing cruelty as well as saving animals from cruelty are the main targets of the RSPCA, they also focus on educating the public, because the public must be aware of cruelty situations and what can be done to prevent cruelty as well as being well informed of what the organisation does, which can encourage volunteers and visitors as well as donations to the organisation.

Firstly the RSPCA has a clear and well presented website which contains news updates of the current status of the organisation and case reports on certain new events and the development which is occurring within the RSPCA and any future advances planned.

The website also offers a service for teachers which enables them to look up information to use in a lesson plan at primary or secondary school. This site also provides links to other sites to look for similar information as well as labelling their own information into age groups to make it easier for teachers to distinguish.

There are leaflets, newsletters and online information about the RSPCA, how it was founded, the main goals and achievements which they have reached as well as plans for the future to continually improve and crack down on further cases of abuse to animals. There is also an online photo library of memorable cases at the RSPCA as well as business information and status information for the public to read if desired.

It is simple to find the latest news and campaign plans online by doing a search for the RSPCA. This is useful as the news allows the public to see exactly where their donations are going, or to see the work being done and perhaps decide to begin donating to the cause, either way it allows the public to make an educated decision based on the facts which they are being shown.

The next thing which the RSPCA offers is animal care information. There are fact sheets and a lot of information on their website with full information on how to care for animals correctly and the right techniques to use with animals. There is also information for general animal and pet care advice and contact details available to ask questions. In this section I also found further information into caring for wildlife and ensuring wildlife safety and protection which is good as it works to keep the public informed on wild animals as well as common domesticated animals which the organisation more commonly deals with.

The organisation offers full information on farm animals and their current status and the way in which it could be improved in a very factual manner. This is also done with regards to farm animals used for food and they show the logo to look for when buying meat produce which shows that the animals have been kept and killed in a humane manner.

The organisation also gives information online on animals which are used for research and the current status and problems which are occurring and being brought to their attention in this situation. This is given along with information on problems which are occurring with wildlife currently and also problems which are occurring with pets currently.

Visitors, when visiting the RSPCA, are able to talk to staff to ask questions and there are many things available to read on the different animals and their backgrounds so that all visitors are fully informed on the animals history and can make an informed decision which they would not be able to do when adopting an animal from most places.

Finally the RSPCA has a team of staff members called education officers and they do tours of primary and secondary schools as well as groups and some colleges to inform them of what the RSPCA does and educate them on issues which they can help with. This goes the extra mile to ensure people fully understand and support the organisation and I feel this is a very good idea as it is focused on getting as many people to help as possible and to prevent cruelty once again by homing in on the punishments which people will face.

Recreation within the RSPCA is not a key factor. People are not charged to visit the organisation. The main key factor which the RSPCA deal with is simply providing enough space for the animals to live comfortably, but being resourceful with space as obviously there is limited space at each centre.

There are toilets available for the public to use at the RSPCA, but there are no places to eat or anything as the main reason visitors are asked to go is to see the animals as opposed to it being a “fun day out” as some of the animals which are at the RSPCA are quite distressing to look at.

There are adverts regarding the organisation on the TV. However, I would not say these are there to encourage visitors for any commercial reasons, and are instead to allow people to become aware of the immense pain and suffering people put animals through every day and to try to get people to come forward and inform them of cruelty or to re home a previously mistreated or abandoned animal.

The re-habilitation of the animals which are at the RSPCA consists of re-homing the animal with a suitable owner to live with them permanently and allowing the animal to then gain the stability and love from its new owners which it deserves.

The first thing done to prepare for re-homing is a full health check for the animal and the animal should be brought to full health and given all relevant vaccinations to ensure that the animal will be re-homed as a healthy animal and will not need medical attention initially. This gives the owner confidence when taking the animal that they will be able to concentrate on the animal settling in more than any other issues to begin with.


The next thing to be done is finding out as much details with regards to the animals behaviour as possible. Finding out if an animal is good with children and other animal’s is essential. If the history cannot be found then the animal will not be homed with animals or other children just in case there is a problem.

Following this, an assessment and long term monitoring of the animals behaviour is needed. Then getting the animal used to new people and going out for long walks and other things which it may not have had previously is done to try to make the transition to the animal’s new owners as smooth as possible.

This is then all recorded and the information will be put up outside the animal’s accommodation for visitors to see. This information will include the animal’s behaviour traits, any recent or permanent health issues which the animal has, how the animal behaves with different people or animals, the age and sex of the animal, the breed if known, the animal history and reason for being brought in if known and any addition information about the animals favourite things or things which make the animal nervous.

A person will then approach an RSPCA member of staff to be considered for re-homing. When this happens a reserved notice will be put up next to the information about the animal so that another person will not try to adopt the same animal. The person who has asked to adopt will have to fill in forms so that the organization is informed of their current situation and what they can or can’t offer the animal.

Next a home visit will be organized. This means a member of staff will go to the potential owner’s home to check it is suitable to keep the named animal. This includes checking for other animals, looking at safety and security within the home, checking the local area to know if it is suitable and also using the opportunity to get to know the owners better and see why they want the animal.

After this, if the owner is considered suitable they are encouraged to buy all the equipment and ensure it is all in their home before the animal will be given to them. For this reason, usually the animal will not be allowed to leave for at least 24 hours after they have given confirmation to the owners that they are suitable to own the animal.

The animal is then re-homed to the person and the ownership remains with the organization, so they can take the animal back at any stage without warning if they feel it is in any danger or if they receive a serious complaint. The animal records are also kept on record and filed.

Research which is done within the RSPCA is largely based on finding out the history of the animals which are brought in to them. This can be looked into using numerous different leads if direct answers can’t be found from the owner or if the animal has been abandoned. It is important to get the animal history when trying to re home as knowing how the animal behaves in different situations and the role the animal was playing before is good information to be able to offer to a prospective owner.

The other thing which involves research is learning new veterinary methods, techniques and medicines for the team of veterinary staff which work in RSPCA centers all over the country, and offering training to implement these new ideas. Staffs need to learn new health and safety measures, new laws, as well as new methods of treating and advances in modern medicines. This is to check animals are getting the ideal treatment at the time in respect to current standards.

Finally research into the company and into ways to inform and educate other people is done by a specialized group of staff. These people will work to create leaflets, newsletters, fact sheets, video’s, television appearances and books all based on the RSPCA for people to look at and be able to watch or purchase.

The ethical aspects of the RSPCA do have two very different sides and opposing opinions found on each side of the spectrum. Looking at the good aspects first I will explain some of the aspects and opinions from each side and then explain my opinion and my reason for this opinion.

The RSPCA rescues around 70,000 animals per year from situations of cruelty and neglect and give the animals a chance at a better life. It is impossible in my opinion to doubt in any way the ethics of doing this and to consider working to protect animals and provide them with a good quality of life as being wrong in any way. For this reason this is a prime factor in why people support and donate to the organization and why ethically so many people favour the RSPCA and will continue to give their support.

The RSPCA provides food, shelter, water and exercise to all animals which are brought into them. The animals are also given medical attention if it is needed and are given regular behaviour and health checks, the progress of which is recorded. The animals are treated well by the staff and as much attention and care is given to the animals as possible to ensure they do not find it too stressful staying in kennels.

The RSPCA work hard to bring relevant topics such as cruelty to animals into the public eye. They are trying to expose some of the horrible conditions which animals are being made to live in and show people the torture and torment which animals have to face everyday to raise awareness and encourage people to come forward so that they can prevent more cases of animal cruelty from going un-noticed.

A negative factor for the RSPCA could be the way in which they go about advertising. Some of the images which are shown and the situations which are described can be very distressing and disturbing and possibly are not suitable for young children to watch as it may cause a great deal of upset to the child. Also, with relation to the advertising, the actual practice of creating an advert with animals in it can cause high amounts of undue stress to the animals which are being put in the advert and this can be considered to be quite cruel in itself and a little unnecessary.

Also, keeping animals in small kennels is not entirely ethical. There is a lot of noise which the animals have to deal with which is not ideal for a nervous animal and could increase the chance of shock or panic in the animal which is not desired at all.

My opinion is that the RSPCA is entirely ethical to me. I feel the jobs which are done are entirely with the animals needs at the heart of the organization and that the staffs are trained to work to care for and protect the animals which they take in or visit. I can’t really agree with the ideas about the negatives of the organization as I feel it is important to let the public know the severity of cruelty which animals have to suffer and that if this is distressing to viewers then it has done its job. After all it is about showing just how bad the conditions are and this should not be pleasant to watch for a regular viewer.

I would say from knowledge studying and from knowledge from within the RSPCA is brilliant and you can not doubt the work they are doing is for a good cause. The workers are higly over worked and the job is demanding, so the next time you visit the RSPCA smile at all the workers and donate some money to this brilliant cause!

Summary: top place, worth visiting, save these poor animals