Monday, November 30, 2009

RSPCA elections

Nominations for the RSPCA national council election open in January, and the deadline to join the society if you might be interested in standing for our local branch committee next year is close, so I thought I'd write something about the governing structure of the RSPCA.

If you're interested in helping to decide RSPCA policy, the first step is to become a member; you will be eligible to vote in RSPCA elections three months after your application has been processed. Members are also eligible to stand for election to their local branch committees, and this is probably the best way to get involved initially. (At present, the online application form seems not to be feeling well, so you might have to phone the number given on the page instead).

Branch committees are composed of volunteers and are elected each year at the branch Annual General Meeting. All RSPCA members living in the branch area are invited to this meeting and those who turn up vote to elect the new committee. Unless something very controversial has happened it's quite difficult to get enough people to stand to form a committee so AGM elections are more in the nature of a vote of confidence than a contested election. However they do mean that the membership could get rid of a committee that was doing a poor job (although they would then have to do the work of the people they'd ousted so they might be sorry in the long run!)

As well as running their own local facilities, branch committees can send representatives to their Regional Board and Local Animal Welfare Group; which are committees responsible for activities spanning the areas of a group of branches. They also have a collective vote in the election of Regional Representatives to the RSPCA's ruling council. The combined effect of this is to ensure that the Council has strong input from the people who are doing animal welfare work at grass roots level. This is important because of the ever present danger that leaders who are not in touch with what is actually happening on the ground will "fight the last war" — for example assuming that a major welfare problem is lots of unwanted healthy animals, rather than sick and injured animals whose owners can't or won't afford the cost of veterinary treatment.

The remainder of the governing council of the RSPCA are elected by postal vote of the whole membership. This election is usually fairly hotly contested and the candidates are mostly people who have come up from the branches (perhaps after a period as branch representatives on a Regional Board), or individuals with a national reputation for campaigning or welfare work.

If you might be interested in joining the Cambridge branch committee, email chairman@rspca-cambridge.org.uk. Most prospective candidates arrange to sit in on a few meetings before they decide whether they want to stand or not (but be aware that some meetings to discuss financial decisions have to be "closed" meetings where only elected members can be present). We usually hold our AGM towards the end of June and all members will receive an invitation a few weeks beforehand.

If you want to become more involved, please bear with us! I'm afraid that, because we're perpetually running about, we often give new people the impression that they're being ignored. This isn't done on purpose, so please keep turning up and you will find that it eventually becomes clearer. One thing we're hoping to organise in the future is a regular meeting for volunteers, so that it will be easier for people to find out what's going on, rather than being isolated doing just the clinic, shop, home-visits etc.

Bonnie Prince Charlie battle re-enactment this weekend.



This weekend, Saturday 5th December 2009 and Sunday 6th December 2009 see the return after a two year break of this annual re-enactment.

The video above is one I made of the 2006 battle on Derby Cathedral Green.

On Saturday, a camp will be set up by Jacobite re-enactors at Swarkestone, which will be overwhelmed by Redcoat soldiers loyal to King George, then retaken by the Prince's men.
Map location :
http://tinyurl.com/y9dfb29

On Sunday, the Jacobite army will enter Derby, marching from the Council House down East Street and St Peter's Street and across the Market Place to Iron Gate, where they will challenge the mayor.
This starts at 12:00
Do NOT got to Wilmot Street where it normally starts from otherwise you will miss the entire march!

Interactive Route map for the march:


View Jacobite re-enactment marching route in Derby. in a larger map

The bronze statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie on horseback that takes pride and place on the new Cathedral Green is by sculptor Anthony Stones and was unveiled in 1995, to mark the 250th Anniversary of the Prince's advance to the city.

Who was Bonnie Prince Charlie :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward_Stuart

Interesting video about Bonnie Prince Charlie by Billy Connolly.

View my photographs from previous Bonnie Prince Charlie events :
2003 in Derby
2004 in Derby
2004 at Swarkestone
2005 in Derby

Turn up and show your support for all the people that take part in this re-enactment.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Cat carriers and old towels

We can always use more cat carriers and old towels if you have any you no longer want.

Carriers need to be capable of being soaked in disinfectant, so not the wicker type ones, but plastic, metal or fabric are all useful.

They can be left at our shops (188 Mill Road, 61 Burleigh St or 156 High Street, Newmarket) or at the animal clinic (1 Pool Way, Whitehill Road, Cambridge). However the shops are probably easier as they're open all day.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch webshop newsletter

Every Purchase Counts logo
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Your buy.at webshop

Money saving Christmas offers from www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge

Save time and buy your Christmas presents online. Buy all of your
gifts through our online shop and RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch will receive a percentage of
what you spend.

Every purchase made via www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge will result in a donation to RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch, don’t forget every purchase counts!

ASDA, Experience Days Amazon, Free Super Saver Delivery
ELC, Star Buy Waterstones, Free UK delivery on orders over £10
M&S, 3 for 2 on a wide range of gifts Game, Fantastic deals on Wii Fit & other consoles
Play.com, Up to 75% off many items plus free delivery Superdrug, 3 for 2 at the Christmas shop

Don't forget not only do these offers help you to save money; every purchase you make will raise funds for RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch.

M&S Competition


M&S Competition


League Table


Visit www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.


Your M and SnextPlay.com hmv.com
Travelcare


ethical superstore.comGAME
Natural CollectionThorntons
Asda

Purchases made through www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge
are made according to the information and terms provided by the company
making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are
provided on the site.


Volunteer drivers needed for our shops

We're looking for someone (or several someones) with a car who would be prepared to put in about an hour a week moving stock between 188 Mill Road and 61 Burleigh street. We need to do this because it's often more convenient for supporters to drop off their donations at Mill road and we then sort them there and transfer just the saleable clothes and ornaments.

We're also looking for volunteer drivers who would be prepared to help with house-clearances. This often produces some very good quality stock for the shops (among a lot that can only be sold for recycling) and is very popular because people wanting houses cleared are happy to see the contents going to support a charity rather than being thrown in a skip.

House clearances are done on an occasional basis and usually involve one or more drivers and some helpers working for about half a day.

We reimburse petrol costs.

If you might be interested in this, please email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk or phone 01223 212 644

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Another elderly stray

It's hard to know what to do for the best when we get calls to pick up elderly "stray" cats. Callers naturally tend to assume that a thin, "poor" looking cat has got that way because he or she doesn't have a home or isn't being cared for. That's not necessarily true, and a very frail-looking animal may well have a devoted home only a few doors away and simply be a very old cat. On the other hand, if the cat really has got lost, and is very elderly their chances of survival are obviously much worse than for a young, fit animal, so we would normally ask the caller to make enquries locally, but agree to collect if no owner is found.

Once we have the cat it's difficult for vets to make an effective assessment without any knowledge of previous history and we'll need to pay for blood tests as a minimum to check kidney function and whether or not the cat is hyperthyroid. Some conditions are treatable and the cat might be able to be placed in a home and live for years; others (such as the last stages of kidney failure) are hopeless and it's not fair to put put the cat in kennels and hope for the best.

If the vet's opinion is that the cat is suffering and ought to be put to sleep then as a welfare organisation we really cannot disregard their advice (bear in mind that this will not usually be "an RSPCA vet" but a normal private vet who is treating people's pets every day).

Just yesterday one of the Soham vets took in a very poorly looking stray for us and this morning they phoned to say he had a bleeding cancerous mass in his mouth and was in pain. In those circumstances it really isn't acceptable to delay in case an owner makes contact. The same day they took in another injured cat for us and he died overnight, so with hindsight it would have saved money to be used for other animals and been better for him if he'd been put to sleep at once. Sometimes these decisions have tragic consequences.

Old strays are another reason why we need more foster homes where we can give a higher standard of TLC than will ever be possible in a cattery environment. These are cats who are unlikely to be rehomed, but are still enjoying life and only ask for warmth, food, a litter tray and a comfortable bed.

If you might be willing to consider fostering animals for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Stocking Fillers





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Windows 7 Audio Driver for ASUS K8V-VM motherboard, Solution to missing sound.

Have you tried the new Microsoft Windows 7 operating System yet?
If you had stuck with Windows XP rather than going over to the rather unstable Vista then you may want to try the new Windows 7 OS. Its a lot better than Vista, not difficult I know!
The ASUS K8V-VM Motherboard.
 I have installed it on an older machine which has an Asus K8V-VM motherboard in it.
It found all the hardware and installed all the drivers but there was no sound at all.
The Volume icon on the system tray showed a red cross in it, hovering over it showed "You do not have speakers or headphone plugged in", even though it did have.
It took quite a while to sort this problem out so I thought I would share this with anyone else out there who has no sound on their ASUS motherboard after installing Windows 7.

The driver I found fixed the problem and I now have sound on Windows 7.
Normally you would visit the download section of the Motherboard manufacturer but the audio drivers offered on the ASUS website for the K8V-VM would not install on Windows 7, but not to worry as I have the solution for you here.

It may be time to think about getting a new PC, ready to go systems are very cheap these days and come with Windows 7 installed so you know all the hardware is going to be compatible with it :


Here are the specifics :

The motherboard (Mainboard) is a ASUS K8V-VM, This uses an Audio Codec "Realtek ALC660" which is a 6-Channel Codec.

To get the Audio Driver you need to visit the website for the actual manufacturer of the Audio Codec.

So visit :
http://www.realtek.com.tw/

Click The Downloads button at the top of the page.
Click the High Definition Audio Codecs (Software) link
Tick "I accept the above" then wait for the page to update then click Next.
You will now see a page of files available for download, at the top of this list is..

Vista, Windows7 Driver (32/64 bits) Driver only (ZIP file)R2.37 2009/11/20 38690k

Click on the first Go link for Site 1 and download the ZIP file.
Once complete, extract all the files from it and run the setup.exe file.
Run through the installation and it will ask you to reboot.
You now have sound !

This codec may fix the no audio problem on many Asus motherboards. I notice on the Realtek site there is a seperate section for downloading Windows 7 drivers for the following codecs..
RTL8100B(L)/RTL8100C(L)/RTL8101L/RTL8139C(L)RTL8139C(L)+/RTL8139D(L)/RTL8100(L)
RTL8130/RTL8139B(L)

Please leave comment if this fixed the no audio problem on Windows 7.

UPDATE: I have noticed over the last few days that sometimes the sound stops working, looking in the devices shows that the driver has gone which is rather strange. Reinstalling it again brings it back to life, I had to do this about 5 times but then it seemed to stay working for ever. Bare this in mind.

If this happens again then I have a permanent solution and that is to buy a USB External Sound Card.
The one I'm looking at is a Creative Soundblaster X-fi Go, this DOES work with Windows 7 and you dont even need to open up your pc to install it.

Whitehaven news report of Cumbria rescue

Pictures of the RSPCA water rescue team working in Cumbria in the Whitehaven News illustrate just how physical the work of the inspectors and animal welfare officers is.

Some people might think all of the rescue effort should be concentrated on helping human beings, but by providing trained people who know enough not to become casualties themselves they're making it less likely that pet owners will try to return to retrieve their animals and need to be rescued by the emergency services.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Not just books!


Our charity shop at 188 Mill Road also has pictures (antique and new), posters and music (CDs and vinyl).

Sunday, November 22, 2009

iPhone UK TV streaming service for all the main UK TV channels



This is absolutely amazing, its NOT an App its a FREE website that allows you to watch 27 UK TV stations almost live (about 15-25 second delayed).
The quality of the video is stunning on 3G. Not even tried it on Wifi yet as 3G quality was amazing.

So now anywhere in the UK you can watch BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Five, ITV 2, BBC three, Film 4, E4, More 4, 4 Music.
As long as you have a good 3G signal or wifi signal strength.
If you have ever used the BBC iPlayer you will have noticed that it only works on wifi where as this works on 3G.

To watch TV now

On your iPhone, Run Safari and goto:

http://iphone.tvcatchup.com/
Then click on Register, all you need is an email address and a password. The login details will also work on the Web version of the TV viewer on your PC.
Then click on one of the channels and after about 10 seconds it will start playing that TV channel.
At any point you can tap the screen and click the Done button and it will return you to the webpage that allows you to select another TV station to watch.

Its worth adding this to your homepage so it has its own icon (like an app has)
To do this goto the home page http://iphone.tvcatchup.com
then click the + button at the bottom of the Safari browser screen
Then click the Add to Home Screen button
Now edit the text as you wish, e.g. "TV Catchup" click the Add button.
Now if you press the home button on your iPhone you should see an icon on the home screen which will allow you to get to the TV channel selector page very quickly.


iPhone users who live outside of the UK trying to access the site will be informed they are “not authorized” to view the content.

This works on O2 3G but not sure if it works on Orange 3G, anyone confirm this?

Andy

More and more requests for help

The number of requests we're getting for emergency help with veterinary treatment is increasing in a worrying fashion. I've had five calls this weekend, each of them meaning £100 just to get the animal seen by an emergency vet for pain relief. This time last year two or three calls would have been a bad weekend, and it doesn't seem to be slackening off.

A bigger proportion of them now seem to be people who are registered with a private practice and have never needed help in the past, but haven't budgeted for the increased cost of out of hours treatment now that nearly all vets use a dedicated ER cover vet rather than just expecting their staff to get up and deal with emergencies. I've no doubt that it makes out of hours treatment safer if the vet's not single-handed and dizzy with fatigue. However— it's making pet insurance more and more essential and also more essential that owners investigate the small print and make sure their insurer will pay the vet direct if they aren't going to be in a position to pay by credit card and claim the cost back.

From our point of view it's making the cost of veterinary help a more and more concerning part of our outgoings and it's ever more urgent that we increase the income from our shops.


Christmas cards available now!




Delightful animal cards now available to buy at 188 Mill Road and 61 Burleigh Street in Cambridge.

All profits from the sale go to support out local animal welfare work.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Webshop newsletter

Every Purchase Counts logo
Tell a Friend
Sing-a-long for Christian Aid


Sing-a-long for Christian Aid


From December 11th to 13th people from all across the UK will be singing
for Christian Aid. Join the campaign and help to raise a note or two for the
world’s poor.


Register now and you’ll be
sent your FREE Sing-a-long Pack with everything you need to make your Big
Christmas Sing a huge success. RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch
will receive £1 for every
pack generated via our webshop.


By registering you'll raise
£1 for RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch, you'll receive your FREE Sing-a-long Pack and you could
be in with the chance of winning a pair of tickets to meet 3 times MOBO award
winner Beverley Knight as she performs an exclusive set at the Natural History
Museum.


Click here
to register.


Every registration
counts!



Register for your Sing-a-long Pack


Pass this on to a friend and every purchase they make will raise funds for us


Win £250 of Gift Vouchers to spend at Play.com


Win £200 of Gift Vouchers to spend at M&S


Help us to Win £1000 this Christmas



Visit www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.


Your M and SnextPlay.com hmv.com Mothercare

ethical superstore.comGAME Natural CollectionThorntons Asda

Purchases made through www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge are made according to the information and terms provided by the company making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are
provided on the site.