Protecting animals from suffering

Call last night from the daughter of an gentleman in great distress because his elderly jack russell was in great pain to the extent that he wasn't able to pick the dog up. These situations always seem to happen at weekends and, quite apart from the increased financial cost of getting out of hours treatment, very few vets are now able to make home visits. Sadly this is a reflection of the times we live in, and the potential liability of their employers if staff members are attacked or injured during a call-out. We were fortunate that Royston Veterinary Centre is one of the few local vets who still do call-outs in their area and that they don't use another veterinary practice for their out of hours cover.

We keep statistics of the numbers of animals which are put to sleep at branch expense and these are reported annually in the combined Annual Report of the society, together with the numbers of animals rehomed or given veterinary treatment. Euthanasia tends to be seen as a situation where the RSPCA has failed to help an animal and I believe we need to challenge this. It certainly is a failure of animal welfare if healthy animals who should have their lives ahead of them are put to sleep. We have not failed when we ensure that animals who have reached the end of their natural lives are released from suffering and indignity instead of dying in pain and fear.

Investments

The RSPCA has an ethical investment policy - basically that society funds shouldn't be invested in anything which causes harm to animals (as that would negate the point of having them, anyway). Putting this into practice isn't exactly as straightforward as it might seem, as I've been finding out.

If you have large amounts of money that you can tie up for several years, there's no problem getting a tailor-made investment package where your funds are invested in companies which fit whatever criteria you specify. For smaller amounts (where "small" means less than about £500,000) it's only really feasible to put your money into existing schemes, and in our case it appears that the only really viable choice is between building societies (you know the funds are invested in property) and the Co-operative Bank (they have a pre-existing list of sectors where they won't invest depositors' money). It's looking as though the Co-op is going to be the right "home" for the money we know we won't need to touch for at least a year.

Unfortunately this doen't completely solve our problems as the Co-op doesn't have many branches where our shops and volunteers can bank cash takings, so it wouldn't be practical to transfer our current account there. We probably also need to maintain some cash on short-term deposit at our current bank because we need to be able to transfer money quickly into the current account when necessary.

I sometimes get asked rather aggressively "what companies do you invest your funds in?" - with the implication that we're probably funding smoking beagles and cosmetics testing. It always sounds rather evasive to say "that's not how banking works", but I'm afraid that's the actual truth. We're not big enough or rich enough to be investing in individual share holdings.

Fleas!

Another two cats — and a first for one of our inspectors, who wound up so covered in fleas that she had to bin her outer clothes and spray herself with insecticide before heading home for a complete shower and change. I wonder if Frontline is licensed for use on humans? Goodness knows what state the poor cats must be in after being shut in with that number of blood-sucking parasites.

This is one health issue where completely feral (free-living) cats are actually better-off than very poorly-kept domestic ones, as they are able to keep down their parasite burden to some extent by changing their sleeping places so that fleas can't build up. When we choose to keep cats inside we take on the responsibility of flea control. There are various veterinary preparations which will kill fleas on the cat, but it's also important to clean the surroundings (and if necessary spray with an approved product).

Elderly Tabby/tortie?

Has anyone in the Cambridge area lost an elderly dark tabby/tortie cat? She was brought in just over a week ago suffering from severe dehydration as well as being very thin, so may have been living rough for some time. She seems to have had an infection at some point which has left her third eyelids permanently partially raised, but this may have happened after she got lost. She initially had to be put on a drip and we thought we were going to be forced to put her to sleep, but she's picked up after being rehydrated and put on a renal diet and she's now maintaining reasonable body condition without artificial fluids.

Fenella's story illustrates the problem of unidentifiable older cats. She's so friendly that she must have had a home at some time, but without a micro-chip it's unlikely that we can re-unite her with her original owners. While she's reasonably well we can ensure her a good quality of life with one of our fosterers, but with so many cats it's not possible to give older ones the same kind of nursing care they would be able to expect in a home of their own.

If you might be interested in fostering animals for our branch, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com with subject: fostering

Stocktake

The caesarian cat came through the operation, but the kittens didn't survive - she had a malformation of the uterus, so she's been spayed.

O'Malley's gone out to his new home (that's him in the picture).

Four abandoned kittens in - booked into the Peterborough kennels for the moment as the ones we normally use are still full-to-bursting.

If you might be interested in adopting a kitten, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Caesarian

Call from one of our local vets to say someone's brought in a stray cat who needs a caesarian. They're being very good about keeping the cost to us to an absolute minimum, but (assuming mum and babies all survive) it means yet another intake of cats into our already-stretched facilities. Fortunately we're still at least in a situation where there's no doubt about reasonably quickly finding homes for kittens - it's the adult cats who stick in kennels.

Have my doubts about whether the cat is a genuine stray - but even if this is a "story" to avoid paying for the operation at least someone cared enough about her welfare to get her to a vet.

Pet Insurance woes

Pet insurance is a life-saver, but owners can be lulled into a false sense of security if they don't make sure their policy is the right one for their financial circumstances. Many policies have an excess - a fixed amount of money which the animal's owner is expected to cover themselves - and will only pay out if the cost of treatment is more than the excess amount. It can be as much as eighty pounds - a sum which an owner on a really low income may not be able to lay their hands on in an emergency. Some policies only pay out once the owner has settled the vet's bill in full - again potentially something that an owner who doesn't have a credit card will find completely impossible.

Aggravatingly, this is just what's happened to a caller who's adopted a dog from a local rescue centre (not RSPCA) recently. The centre rehomes all its dogs with 30 day health insurance cover, and she'd delayed registering her dog at our clinic until after the bank holiday as a result.

Getting stung by jellyfish on an August bank holiday, will set you back £100+ at a private vet if you are a labrador. Unfortunately her policy has an excess of £80 which she doesn't have - and she doesn't have access to her savings because they are in a Post Office account.

Moral - always read the small print and never put off until tomorrow what you need to do today.

Running round in circles

Most of the people we deal with mean well, but they can create complicated situations. Phoned last night by an elderly lady who takes her dogs to our clinic. Her grandson's looking after his parent's home while they're away and taken in an unwanted kitten. This would have been fine, until kitty managed to get caught in a door - now has a leg swelling to twice its natural size, and, of course, being a bank holiday weekend, only the 24 hour emergency vet is open. At 7 weeks, the kitten's not old enough to have been registered at our clinic for their emergency cover.

Managed to get kitty into Vet24. They think his leg's probably broken, so they'll keep him on pain relief until Tuesday when we can transfer him to our clinic. If the leg is broken, we're looking at around £200 to get it pinned, even with our RSPCA discount, so I think the owner may have to sign the kitten over for rehoming. Sad, as he's a nice lad and very concerned about it.

Parvo yet again

Another puppy with parvovirus. Treated with fluids at the clinic on Thursday and Saturday and again this morning as an emergency.

Honey

Honey is a lovely, friendly girl, one of the eight cats we took in after their owners were evicted. Ideally she would like to be adopted together with one of her friends as she is very sociable.

If you might be interested in adopting Honey, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Today's dog - Ben

Ben is playful and energetic in spite of being thirteen years old and a little chubby. We think he's not a pure-bred golden retriever, although that's obviously a major part of his ancestry. He's very healthy considering his age, but has had some problems with irritation of his ears and may need regular ear-drops to keep this under control.

If you might be interested in adopting Ben, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Update on Emily

Emily's now had her stitches out and looks more normal except for a bald patch. She was originally found in Burwell.

Latest stray

This little cat was brought in from the Cambridge area with quite severe mastitis, which presumably means she had kittens but they died.

Today's dog - Maddison

Maddison is a lovely, friendly longhaired German Shepherd who came into our care as the result of a cruelty case (she wasn't severely neglected, but a second dog was).

She's about four years old and needs an experienced owner willing to make sure she gets the training, mental stimulation and exercise she needs.

If you think she might be the dog for you, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

61 Burleigh Street

This is the unit we're hoping to lease to set up a new charity shop in Burleigh street. We're in the early stages of negotiation with the landlords, so nothing is definite yet, but it would be very nice if we could be open for the run-up to Christmas.

The rent would be an eye-watering step-up from the old shop at 184 Mill Road, but we would have more than twice the current sales area and be in a location with more people walking by and hopefully making purchases.

Spent an hour yesterday counting passers-by and recorded 486 - or roughly eight per minute. I'll do another count at the weekend to get an idea of the difference between weekdays and Saturdays.

We're not planning to move the bookshop at 188 Mill Road as that is doing well and still increasing sales. 

We need volunteer helpers at all three shops. If you might be interested, please email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk (for the two Cambridge shops) or newmarket@rspcabookshop.co.uk (for the shop in Newmarket)

Pedigree dogs?

Controversy this evening on the BBC with a documentary on the health problems of pedigree dogs. I can certainly go along with the comment about the problems some Westie's have with allergies and how awful it can be to have an otherwise perfect dog but be considering euthanasia because he's in permanent misery with itching skin that won't heal whatever the vets try.

Ironically, the despised Staffie must come out pretty well in the health stakes. I don't think I've ever seen one with health problems which had an underlying genetic basis. They're a normal "doggy shape" with no exaggerations and they're probably reasonably out-bred because most of them seem to be the result of ordinary pet owners deciding to let their dog have a litter. Most of the ones we see at our clinic have infections, accidents and so on, but are basically normal dogs.

The dog in the picture is poor old Ghost, still looking for a home. If you would like to visit him to see if he would suit you, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

National Dog Adoption Month

August is National Dog Adoption Month, so this week I'm going to feature the dogs we have waiting for new homes. This is Wee Man, a funny-looking chap with rather short legs, who is rather shy, but good with cats and other dogs. He would like a quiet home, but would be happy to fit in with other pets.

If you would like to visit him in our kennels, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Depressed-looking fence

This was once a fence and gate to the area behind our animal clinic, but there's not a lot left of it.

Irritatingly, the smaller building just off the picture to the left, is a bicycle shed, which we had to have constructed as a condition of getting planning permission to build the clinic. When the fencing was intact we didn't use it because it was a major operation to unlock the padlocks and open the gate. Now, we don't use it because no-one fancies sharing a bike shed with various undesirable objects left there by other people. 

As you can see, the windows are heftily reinforced. The state of the fence has fairly well proved to us that there's no point simply repairing it and we're probably going to have to replace it with metal palings and a metal gate. Ultimately, this is where we'd like to build a sluice room for improved disinfection and cleaning, filling in the gap and making another gate into the bike shed so that it might actually become useable.

Wilkinsons store in Ely

Wilkinsons have very kindly offered RSPCA branches the chance to collect outside their stores over the weekend 27/28 September. As the stores are on public thoroughfares we would also need to get permission from the local authority, so if we are to do a collection in the Cambridge branch area, we need to know whether we have enough volunteers within the next week. The only Wilkinsons store in our branch area is the one in Ely (see map below this post), and unfortunately the majority of our current volunteers live further South, or in Newmarket.

If you live in Ely and would be interested in collecting for the RSPCA local branch that weekend, please email rosemary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk as soon as possible. Our spring collections outside Tesco stores are usually very successful (although we've never had enough volunteers to collect at the Ely Tesco). It would be very nice to be able to run an additional autumn collection to raise funds at the other end of the year.

View Larger Map

Millicent needs a home

This pretty girl is Millicent, another one of the group of eight. If you might be interested in adopting her, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Healthy animals

A dear old lady with six cats of her own had been feeding a scruffy-looking stray and periodically trying to confine him to get him neutered. Finally he disappeared for several weeks and she assumed he'd gone off and died, but he turned up again last night, looking even more the worse for wear and blind in one eye. Claire drove over and took him to Vet24. 

Sadly it turned out that he was a perfect example of why a "no-kill" shelter policy is not as simple as it may sound. If he'd had an owner able to give him tablets and a special renal diet there might well have been some point in having him castrated (so he'd no longer want to wander and fight younger, fitter cats), operating to remove the ruined eye and treating the eye with some remaining sight. As things were, it would have been simple cruelty to confine a cat like him in cattery conditions (most of the earlier to-ing and fro-ing on the old lady's part had been because she couldn't bear to shut him in her shed because he cried). She was in her eighties and wouldn't have been able to organise tablets and special diet. Euthanasia was really the only responsible option to avoid causing him more distress.

Anyone in Soham interested in volunteering?

We have an offer of rent-free, short-term use of a unit on Soham High Street which might be suitable for selling charity items to raise funds in the run-up to Christmas. However, to make it viable we would need a nucleus of committed volunteers - at least 10 to give adequate cover.

If you might be interested and live in or near Soham, please email me - rosemary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Branch Reserves Policy

Now that we actually have some reserves (the result of a generous legacy, which pulled us back from a very dicey hand-to-mouth situation) we need to have a policy about the way we manage them, and at our committee meeting this week we agreed the formula below.

“Owing to the nature of our activities and supporter base, branch income is composed of a fairly regular component from fundraising activities and clinic fees and an unpredictable legacy component. This means that we receive occasional very large amounts which need to be used gradually to support the regular income rather than being spent during the year in which we receive them. We aim to keep our free reserves between an upper limit set at twice our annual operating costs and a lower limit fixed at the amount which would permit 12 months continued activity at current levels of regular earned income. 

At any point when free reserves dip below this 12 month safety limit we will have to begin cutting back the level of service which we provide.

At current income and expenditure rates the lower reserve limit is £41,000 and the upper limit is £260,000.”

In other words, if our steady income from the shops, clinic fees, collection tins etc. is £3,000 a month short of what we currently spend, we can calculate how long it would take before our saved funds ran dry. If the remaining time drops to 12 months we need to make emergency cuts until spending is in balance with the steady income. 

Our free reserves at the moment (after allowing for outgoings which we know will take place at the year end) amount to £120,000. This would sustain our current expenditure for three years provided our regular income stays at its existing levels. It means our work is reasonably secure, but there isn't much scope for "capital" projects (such as building an extension to our clinic for a "sluice room", which is one of the things we'd like to do).

And again

Swayne & Partners phoned again this morning to say the last dog owned by the family with the original parvovirus infected puppy has started vomiting, and the one they saw yesterday has died.

Arguably the family have committed some kind of offence under the Animal Welfare Act by failing to provide adequate care for those five dogs, but frankly nothing we could do to them would punish them more than the consequences of their failure to get any of them vaccinated.

More Parvo

Vet phones in to say another dog belonging to the family with two parvo-infected puppies is vomiting. They've got no money, so I've agreed to cover basic supportive treatment - given in their surgery car park as they daren't have something that infectious brought into their building to put the paying clients' animals at risk.

Foster Homes Needed

We are looking for people who would be willing to help with short-term care of animals before they're fit enough to be transferred to the kennels. This would usually be injured cats needing "cage rest" - basically time spent confined in a fairly small pen in order to prevent them doing damage to broken bones or wounds that have been stitched.

Fosterers need somewhere indoors suitable to put up one of our pens (tiles or vinyl flooring are ideal because they are easily cleaned).  We provide suitable pens and pay for food and cat litter. Most injured cats would need to attend the RSPCA clinic for several check-ups before being passed as fit for rehoming. We can organise transport if the fosterer doesn't have a car (or isn't available at the right times). Ideally pens should be in a room where they can be shut away from your own cats in order to reduce the risk of disease being spread.

Because of the need to return to the clinic in Cambridge, we are particularly looking for fosterers in or close to Cambridge, but would also be interested in helpers further afield.

If you are interested in fostering for us, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com 

Raffle

Anyone who fancies winning this rather alarming creature (I think he's meant to be some kind of baboon) can buy a ticket at our charity shop at 188 Mill Road, Cambridge. Hurry, ends on Friday 15th August

Gratitude

To Haidee Barker of Arbury road vets for very kindly offering to look after the stray with the bad head abscess over the weekend while he still needed daily dressing changes - a really enormous help for us.

Also to Stone Lane vets who took in another stray tom late on Saturday morning, when it would have been virtually impossible to move him anywhere, and helpfully agreed to hold him over until Monday and neuter him before we try to get him into cattery or foster care. It will be much easier for our fosterers to cope with him if he's starting to lose that pungent tom-cat smell.

He's yet another tom who almost certainly had a home originally, but started to wander in search of females, and then was picked up as an injured stray because of a bite abscess. This is one reason why we offer low-cost neutering and neutering vouchers to anyone on state benefits. It not only reduces the production of unwanted kittens, but it also helps to decrease the number of adult males who are handed in to us as injured strays.

State of play

On the plus side, the kitty with the extreme hair-cut, little Tommy, the yorkie, Hendrik, the Shi Tzu cross, and Bob, with the dislocated hip, all have homes booked. 

On the downside, there's another cat waiting for collection from Arbury road vets (with a drain for his nasty abscess that will go on leaking pus for several days - oh joy!). 

Plus one angry hamster, product of an unexpected litter. This is more common than you'd think, considering that Syrian hamsters are solitary and should be kept in individual cages. The child who owned the original hamster appears to have given the babies out like sweets to her class-mates, some of whose parents weren't happy to be landed with the chore of cage-cleaning. 

Parvovirus again

Another phone call last night: 9 week old puppy, vomiting, lethargic. Owner never been to a vet, and, presumably, puppy never vaccinated by the breeder. Owner has no money and didn't realise that charges escalate after 6.30 pm when normal surgery hours end and all the local vets go over to emergency rates. It's worth stressing this - in normal surgery hours £50 will cover a private vet's consultation fee and some first aid treatment. After 6.30, you're talking about £75 just for the consultation fee.

Being vaccinated at 8 weeks old via our clinic might not have protected that puppy altogether, as she would only have had her first jab and there wouldn't have been enough time for much immunity to develop. BUT it would have meant she was registered and therefore eligible to be seen by the out of hours emergency service for a £30 charge.

Yet another this morning, via the Haverhill vet. Sadly, put to sleep on the vet's advice.

More on the "can't cope" theme

Ben's owner was evicted and had to give him up as a result. He's thirteen years old, but still playful and affectionate and really deserves a good home.










If you think you might be able to give Ben a home for whatever time he has left, please email: rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Vegetarian easy

Easy vegetarian

Becoming vegetarian is one of the choices you can make that are most beneficial for your health.

And, believe me, it is easy to be vegetarian.

Many people are worried that it can be difficult to give up their favourite foods.

But in reality food is an “acquired taste” literally. Mostly, we like what we are used to. That, for instance, explains why people of different cultures and culinary traditions have diverse palate and appreciate widely dissimilar dishes.

Most emphatically, the idea that meat and fish are tastier than vegetarian meals is a myth. In many cases it is the herbs, spices and vegetables that give flavour to meat-based dishes.

Have you ever wondered why we humans can eat many vegetables raw, but very few, if any, kinds of animal flesh without first cooking them? Does that not point to a certain instinctive difficulty for our digestive system in dealing with meat and fish?

I have been a vegetarian for almost all my adult life. If I now should have meat in any form, very likely I would feel sick. This (which would probably apply to the generality of vegetarians and vegans) shows that it is not something inherent in a vegetarian diet which makes it difficult to introduce, but rather a general principle of our eating patterns: sudden change is disruptive at first and needs time to adjust.

This is often the case in matters of the senses. Think of music. How many times, upon hearing it the first time, did you have an immediate rejection for a pop song or a classical piece of music which later became a joy for your ears?

It may take time to love good music, and it may take time to love good food.

Easy steps to vegetarianism

My first piece of advice, therefore, is: take it easy, make the change gradually. Let your taste buds get acquainted with and used to the new flavours.

My second piece of advice: do not think in terms of renunciations, but of replacements. Next time you are thinking of having a burger, choose a vegeburger instead. Or have a delicious fresh sandwich with plenty of fresh salad vegetables and succulent but not fat sauces like those sold by Subway, for instance. You don’t have to do this every time at first, but you can start by opting for a healthier alternative, say, half of the times, and then gradually increase the frequency.

Just to realize how alien meat-eating is to our nature, and we believe that it is natural only because we have become accustomed to it, think of how food poisoning is almost invariably associated with meat or, more infrequently, with other animal products but extremely rarely with foods of vegetable origin.

Even touching raw meat, poultry or fish without washing your hands can spread bacteria and lead to food poisoning. And even reusing the same utensils, plates, dishcloths, teatowels and sponges that have come into contact with raw meat, fish or poultry (even indirectly, for instance by cleaning a surface which has touched them) is dangerous, because bacteria from the raw juices will contaminate other food.

This could help explain why meat workers, people involved in the meat industry, are the unhealthiest workers: in the USA about 25 percent of all employees of meatpacking plants have job-related injuries or illnesses, that is as many as 4 times the national average for all private industry sectors.

Collar wound

The stitches are difficult to see in the photo because they're black thread against a strip of black fur (pinkish part is where poor Emily was shaved so they could establish the extent of the lacerated area). Basically the collar sliced into her skin along a line from her shoulder to breastbone, going just behind her right foreleg. The Elizabethan collar is to stop her licking her stitches.

I'll put up more photos when she's got the Elizabethan collar off and some of the fur's grown back in case anyone recognises her.

Doing our bit for carbon neutrality

This is Emily, the little black cat from Burwell with the awful collar wound.

Now well enough to go out into foster care and looking a little apprehensive about our transport facilities.

I don't try this with animals with fractures or anything that will be made worse by jolting, but otherwise, most cats and rabbits prefer cycling to being enclosed in a noisy, frightening car. Cambridge is very "cycle-orientated" and there are often short-cuts which mean it's actually quicker by bike. One of my own cats loves travelling by cycle (even to the vet!) and practically sits there waving to her admirers like royalty.

Parvovirus

Just to reiterate the warning on our main website:

Any dog whose vaccinations are not current could be at risk of contracting canine distemper or canine parvovirus. The disease is particularly dangerous to younger dogs who have never been vaccinated and is very often fatal. If your dog or puppy is not vaccinated please consult your vet - IT IS NOT WORTH risking a £500 vet bill and a dead dog at the end of it for the sake of saving the comparatively small cost of vaccination. If you are on benefits or state pension and really cannot afford the full cost, you may be eligible to have the vaccination given at our clinic at a lower rate than a private vet would need to charge.

If your dog is not vaccinated and starts vomiting or has diarrhoea DO NOT let them mix with other dogs and phone your vet for advice. If you have more than one dog, keep the sick one away from the ones who are still healthy. Contact your vet by phone for advice before getting the healthy dogs vaccinated - they may be carrying the disease and it is important that they are not brought into contact with other dogs.

Many people assume that being vaccinated as a puppy means their dog has life-long protection. This is not the case, although your vet may advise some variation from a schedule of yearly vaccinations for elderly dogs or dogs with certain health problems. In case of doubt always consult your own vet for advice which is personalised for your particular dog's state of health.

Users of the Cambridge RSPCA animal clinic must bring proof of benefits or paperwork such as a bank-statement which shows that they have a very low income each time they visit the clinic. If you are unable to bring your pet yourself it's fine for a helper to bring them for you, but the helper must show proof that you are in receipt of benefit and needs to have a signed note from you confirming that they are bringing the animal on your behalf.

Damn!

Yet another dog with vomiting and diarrhoea; the third in two days. It's almost certainly an outbreak of parvo-virus, just to make our lives complete.

Chocolate!

Nice to be reminded sometimes that not every staffy owner is an irresponsible "chav". Worried phone call last night from a young owner whose 9 week old puppy had escaped from behind her dog guard and managed to nick a large-ish block of chocolate from a kitchen table she'd not realised the pup had grown enough to reach.

Apart from the initial accident of the pup's escape (which might happen to anyone), the owner had done everything right. The pup had had her first vaccination at our clinic as soon as she was old enough, so was not only protected against nasty diseases, but registered and so eligible for the out of hours service. The owner was knowledgeable enough to be aware that chocolate is poisonous to dogs and that she needed to get help at once. She had the pup's registration card and our emergency number to hand where she could find them instantly.

It really restores your faith in human nature.

Animal Hoarders and others

This is Bearface, who came in from the same original place as Alphina. If you might be interested in adopting them (or any of our other animals), please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Which leads into the subject of today's post, sparked off by an article on the Disability Now website. Bearface, Alphina and their eight other friends were brought in by our inspector after being signed over to the RSPCA because their previous owner couldn't cope with so many cats any longer. They were all evidently loved and cared for and there was absolutely no question of anyone being prosecuted.

The vast majority of the animals, other than injured strays, that we take in for rehoming fall into variations on the "can no longer cope" category, for a variety of legitimate reasons. Sometimes because people's circumstances have changed; often because a landlord has finally taken exception to the large number of animals being kept, and fairly frequently because the owner has mental or physical problems severe enough to cause them to be placed in some kind of institution for reasons that are not necessarily related to the fact that they have pets.

The most horrific example of this last category that's ever happened in our own area is one where a very elderly couple owned a number of dogs. The husband was suffering from severe dementia and his wife sadly had a heart attack and died with the result that he lived with his wife's remains for several weeks, unable to comprehend the situation enough to call the emergency services or feed the dogs. That clearly wasn't his fault, and the only reason our poor inspector was called in by the police was because they needed someone to deal with the surviving dogs.

When someone is suddenly taken into hospital or prison it is the responsibility of the emergency services to protect their possessions and, in the case of inanimate objects, this is simple to do by making their home secure. It clearly isn't an option to do this with living animals, which is why the police and social services will generally try to get the RSPCA to take them if it seems likely that the owner isn't going to return within a reasonable timespan. It's fairly clear from some of the Internet discussions about the RSPCA that this is sometimes interpreted as us "seizing" the animals, although from our perspective we've done nothing except respond to a request to care for animals who have been (involuntarily) abandoned by their owner.

Which leads on to the comparatively rare situations where animals are seized and their owners prosecuted. First of all, it should be said firmly that the RSPCA doesn't (and is not allowed to) simply take animals away without authorisation from the police and a veterinary surgeon's opinion. Once the animals have been removed they remain the property of the original owner until the owner signs them over to the RSPCA voluntarily or until a court makes an order about their future. This is as is should be - as a voluntary body we ought not to be in a position of being judge, jury and executioner.

The problem in the case of people who have a mental abnormality of some kind and are not willing to give up animals voluntarily is that it means there is no middle way to avoid putting them through the whole process of prosecution, including the inevitable publicity, without simply abandoning the animals to their fate. Rosalind Gregson is an absolutely classic example of someone who had to be stopped from collecting more and more animals and keeping them in abysmal conditions, but who wasn't fully responsible for her actions. Prison clearly wasn't an appropriate punishment for her, but sentencing is the decision of the court, not the RSPCA. Margaret O'Leary is a similar case.

In the States animal hoarding is beginning to be recognised as a specific form of mental illness and convicted people may be given treatment orders rather than punishment. This is clearly better, but I can't see any realistic alternative to the prosecution process unless society decides to go down the road of authorising confiscation of animals and enforced treatment of their owners without a legal oversight (or with something like a judge in chambers instead of open court). Have to say I find the idea a bit chilling - what happens to the "mad cat ladies" of this world who are eccentric but do look after their animals and keep numbers within fairly reasonable limits.