Time for a review of RSPCA Animal Charity’s Bullyboy Tactics ?
This blog has been established by animal lovers to expose the double standards, hypocricy and media driven prosecution policy that is institutional within the RSPCA. This site thoroughly condemns cruelty and neglect towards animals and in particular objects to the numbers of animals killed by the RSPCA (60,000+ per annum) and several of the methods used. DISCLAIMER; The views expressed on this blog are not validated by the Blogger and are based upon the views or expressions of third parties.
RSPCA POLICY NOT TO ACCEPT ABANDONED PETS
HOW THE RSPCA DEAL WITH LOST PETS
WHAT THE RSPCA DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW
Monday, 20 May 2013
RSPCA PERSECUTE RESPECTED DEFENCE BARRISTER
The RSPCA tried to ruin my life, says top barrister: A decade of accusations – and a £1m legal bill to defend his good name
- Jonathan Rich, defended hundreds of people against RSPCA over 20 years
- Friend of Dawn Aubrey-Ward, 43, an RSPCA inspector turned whistleblower
- She accused the charity of destroying her character
- She was found hanged at her home this month
A leading barrister yesterday claimed he had been forced to stop working on cases involving the RSPCA because the charity tried to ‘ruin’ his life with spurious complaints.
Cambridge-educated Jonathan Rich, who defended hundreds of people against the RSPCA over 20 years, said he has spent almost £1million defending professional allegations made by the charity about his conduct.
He was a friend of Dawn Aubrey-Ward, 43, an RSPCA inspector turned whistleblower who also accused the charity of destroying her character.
She was found hanged at her home this month.
Yesterday Mr Rich, 46, said times had been ‘very tough’ and he might have suffered the same fate, were it not for his resolve and the love and support of his family.
‘I think the RSPCA were probably working on the basis that I wouldn’t be as strong as I proved to be,’ Mr Rich told the Daily Mail.
‘My insurers and I have spent a lot of money defending their claims and I’ve been through some very, very tough times, but I’ve got a fantastic wife who has been very supportive and my family have got me through.
‘Other people faced with what I have had to contend with might well have killed themselves.
‘I am not ashamed to say I have been treated for reactive depression as a result of my ordeal. Two years ago I nearly died from a stress-related condition.’
Mr Rich, a contemporary of the Prime Minister at Eton and a Tory councillor, said problems began around 2003 when the charity made the first of several formal and informal complaints linked to cases he was defending.
‘For two decades I had a superb track record, I won a lot of cases against the RSPCA, but it started to get vicious in the noughties,’ Mr Rich, a father of three, added.
‘I really believe everybody has the right to a defence and targeting a lawyer really is not a legitimate strategy. They set out to ruin me.
‘While I would love to carry on I am very, very tired of fighting them. I felt I had no choice but to stop taking cases involving the RSPCA for my own well-being and that of my family.’
Mr Rich’s comments will put further pressure on the charity, which has been criticised for recent high-profile, expensive legal cases and an aggressive publicity campaign.
It is currently being investigated by the Charity Commission over its stance against badger culling and live animal exports.
Last November Gavin Grant, chief executive of the RSPCA, wrote a Twitter message to Mr Rich, saying: ‘Please remind me why you no longer defend animal abusers against RSPCA prosecutions? We’ve +98% success rate as you know.’
The barrister, who also practises property and commercial law, said the tweet was indicative of an organisation that was concerned with animal rights ‘but has little regard for humanity’.
In the past ten years the charity has made two direct complaints of professional misconduct against Mr Rich to the Bar Standards Board, while another nine have been made by people working on cases involving the RSPCA. The charity claims it played no role in these.
Mr Rich, who has never had a single complaint made about his conduct by any other organisation or individual in 24 years at the Bar, said all had been dropped, dismissed or struck out and he had never faced a full hearing. Three remain active.
He and Miss Aubrey-Ward, whose character was publicly attacked by the charity after she accused it of putting healthy dogs to sleep because they were deemed not suitable for rehoming, became friends because of their treatment by the RSPCA.
‘We were both going through the same sort of nightmare with the same assailant,’ Mr Rich said.
‘It was a relief for me to find someone like her to talk to and she told me she felt the same. I feel a terrible sense of loss.’
A spokesman for the RSPCA said it made complaints only in ‘extreme circumstances and following established processes’.
She added: ‘The RSPCA has secured nearly 10,000 convictions in the magistrates’ courts in the past three years alone and, to our knowledge, Mr Rich is the only barrister the RSPCA has ever complained about in terms of professional conduct.’
Last December the RSPCA was criticised by a judge after it emerged it had spent a ‘staggering’ £326,000 on a magistrates’ court prosecution against the Heythrop Hunt, David Cameron’s local hunt in Oxfordshire.
Earlier this month another judge said it had wasted court time in a case concerning a hunt linked to a pro-hunting Tory councillor.
The legal action cost the charity £50,000 but resulted in two fines of just £300.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2327306/The-RSPCA-tried-ruin-life-says-barrister-A-decade-accusations–1m-legal-defend-good-name.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
ANOTHER SAD DEATH AT THE BLOODY HANDS OF THE RSPCA
RIP Dawn, your pursuit of justice and your determination in the face of evil was an inspiration to all. Your work will continue! |
After the article appeared in a Sunday newspaper the RSPCA issue a statement attacking her character and describing her as a “disgruntled former employee”.
Ms Aubrey-Ward said that the response was “evil” and that the charity had put her through “hell”, tweeting: “They ruined my life”.
In the months before her body was found at her home in Somerset by one of her children she had approached other newspapers, according to the Times.
The day before she was found dead she is said to gave posted on Facebook: “That’s it, I give up. I am unemployed, broke, struggling and allegedly ‘damaged’.”
Thousands of animals, particularly dogs, were being killed unnecessarily, it was said.
Afterward the RSPCA’s head of press issued a statement claiming the story was “inaccurate and biased”, adding: “Please be aware of the fact that Dawn Aubrey-Ward is a disgruntled former employee of the RSPCA who was subject to a disciplinary investigation for alleged theft of animals.
“She left the organisation with matters still pending.
“There were also police concerns drawn to the RSPCA’s attention of irregularities relating to her possession of firearms and some welfare concerns regarding animals under her care during her working time for us.”
She tweeted in response: “They really are stooping low! My animals are happy healthy and as for concerns omg! That is evil!”
The ‘theft’ related to a tortoise she had taken home from a police station and the firearms related to the storage of a gun and ammunition used to destroy animals.
Jonathan Rich, a friend and barrister, described the RSPCA treatment of her as “disgraceful” and said it had made it hard for her to find work.
Ms Aubrey-Ward openly admitted she suffered with “severe depression”, but asked “hardly surprising is it?”
An inquest into her death has been opened and adjourned.
Monday, 7 January 2013
RSPCA UK’s 3rd MOST COMPLAINED ABOUT CHARITY
“It suggests a loss of direction and leadership, and a focus on political ideology at the expense of animal welfare.”
The figures were issued by the Charity Commission to Mr Hart last July, several months before a judge criticised the charity for the “staggering” cost of the prosecution against members of the Heythrop Hunt in Oxfordshire.
The MPs and peers have reported the RSPCA’s 18 trustees to the Charity Commission last month for breaching a “duty of prudence” which governs the actions of all charity trustees under charity legislation.
The group – which includes Tory grandee Lord Heseltine – also told the watchdog that they had “concerns about the motivation for bringing this prosecution”.
A spokesman for the RSPCA said: “The RSPCA is unique among charities in England and Wales. No other charity can claim to campaign for legislative change, and then to uphold the very laws that it fought for with such dedication.
“Throughout our history, the RSPCA has never and will never shy away from making decisions that we believe further the cause of prevention of cruelty to animals – no matter how unpopular they may prove with some people.
“It goes without saying that many of the decisions we make will upset those who believe they can break the law and get away with it.
“We make no apology for that. Our ‘raison d’etre’ is to be the voice and protector of animals that cannot protect themselves.”
A spokesman for the Commission said: “We do not keep league tables in relation to complaints which we receive about charities. Large national charities which are membership organisations like the RSPCA invariably have a high public profile and do attract public attention.
“Many concerns which may be raised with the Commission about the way the charity conducts its affairs are not matters for the Commission as charity regulator as they are matters for the charity itself.
“Trustees are permitted to exercise their duties and responsibilities in the best interests of the charity as they think fit. The Commission would only be concerned as regulator where a charity was in clear breach of its duties and responsibilities as a charity.
“This would not include interfering with decisions made by the charity where these have been properly made.
“Ultimately trustees are responsible for running the charity and for dealing with any reputational issues which might arise.”
Sunday, 6 January 2013
RSPCA SPEND £326K ON PROSECUTION CASE, BUT CLOSE PRESTON BRANCH DUE TO LACK OF FUNDS
The group – which includes Tory grandee Lord Heseltine – also told the watchdog that they had “concerns about the motivation for bringing this prosecution”.
Tory MP Simon Hart, a former chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said last night that it was “very sad” that a branch which daily cared for sick and injured animals was potentially closing down weeks after the prosecution.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “It is very sad that pets are going uncared for due to lack of funds at the same time as the Charity spends a third of a million on a case that will not save the life of a single fox.
“There is a huge difference between being an animal welfare organisation, which the RSPCA used to be famous for, and an animal rights one, which is what the society is fast becoming.”
The RSPCA declined to say whether its national office, which last year received £100million in donations, would intervene to stop the Preston branch from closing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9776275/Local-RSPCA-branch-to-close-despite-head-office-spending-326k-prosecuting-David-Camerons-local-hunt.html
RSPCA BEING DESTROYED BY MILITANTS
One must always treat lawyers with respect, so let me state at once that I have absolutely nothing against Jeremy Carter-Manning QC. From his entry in Who’s Who, I see that he was educated at St Paul’s School, called to the Bar nearly 40 years ago, and that his recreations include “food and wine”, which he pursues in the Reform Club. I have no doubt he is esteemed in his profession.
So why, in terms of animal cruelty, was the Heythrop Hunt case considered more than 100 times more important than the torture of a pony, or the starvation of a cat, or alsatians, overcrowded and filthy, locked in a tower block all day, or all the other horrible things that human beings do to animals?
It wasn’t, of course. Even a fierce opponent of hunting could not make that claim. The difference is political. Under Mr Grant, who took over last year, the RSPCA is militant. The Heythrop Hunt was chosen because its country is in David Cameron’s constituency. Mr Grant has denied that he is fighting a class war: “This isn’t about accents,” he declared. But he also said to the Daily Mirror that those hunting with the Heythrop were “no different from badger baiters – apart from their accents”, so accents would seem to be on his mind. He says he wants the men to go to prison for between two and five years.
As you would expect, the RSPCA has its own legal department, well-versed, presumably, in looking at film of alleged animal cruelty. But that wasn’t good enough for Mr Grant. He had to get the QC in and pay him to watch the movies. He wanted this to be big.
A similar tendency to go for the dramatic gesture was visible when Mr Grant called for a boycott of all milk produced by farmers who had agreed to take part in the badger cull (later postponed) to help eradicate bovine – and badger – TB. People would not want to buy milk from farms “soaked in badgers’ blood”, he said. In Ramsgate, in September, RSPCA inspectors, worried about defective live animal transport, insisted on unloading sheep at the port and shooting more than 40 that they deemed unfit to travel. Two sheep also drowned in a water tank. Mr Grant has defended what the inspectors did, without qualification.
He is entitled to his views. But when you look at the main work for which the RSPCA is valued, you see that it is overwhelmingly the practical rescue and care of animals. On its website, the emphasis is on this good work, and on practical advice about disease, strays, worming etc. The RSPCA’s key “five pledges” do not mention prosecutions.
Because of its care of animals, the RSPCA is treated in a special way. Its inspectors wear uniforms, though they have no legal powers. Chief constables encourage its prosecution work. And – a little known fact – if the RSPCA brings a case and loses it, the costs of the defendants are usually borne by the taxpayer. So the RSPCA can prosecute almost without thinking. It can go to law as a marketing tool or to make a political point.
This is an abuse of the privileges our culture has traditionally granted it. These, including its many legacies, its charitable status and the patronage of the Queen, came because the RSPCA was an animal welfare organisation – and people strongly support that. Recently, it has become an animal rights organisation instead.
The doctrine of animal rights, developed by Dr Richard Ryder, who is on the RSPCA Council, regards human beings as morally identical to “other animals”, so they should never kill animals for food or clothing, let alone sport. Dr Ryder thinks that people who disagree are guilty of “speciesism”, which, like racism, is profoundly wicked. Mr Grant is highly sympathetic to these views. A former Liberal Democrat activist, he sees his work as a political campaign. This alienates large numbers of people – farmers, horse-racing bodies, dog organisations – who work professionally with animals, not to mention officials and ministers at Defra. Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State, recently told the RSPCA to be “wary” of muddling charity and politics. Relationships which once were co-operative have become confrontational.
People are naturally starting to ask by what right the RSPCA acts. Despite its policy of never killing a “rehousable” animal, it admits to putting down 3,400 animals for non-medical reasons in 2011. Its membership has fallen to only 25,000. This is a tenth of the numbers who turn out to support hunts on Boxing Day and a fortieth of the membership of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Whom, then, does it actually represent? The RSPCA website does little to attract members, as opposed to donations. It looks as if it likes to trade on its huge, historic reputation, without answering to anyone.
Over 30 years ago, a comparable takeover occurred in the Labour Party. A mass movement originally designed to advance the interests of workers was infiltrated by the Militant Tendency. Today, a movement originally designed to advance the interests of animals hangs in the balance.
By the way, I notice a postscript on the bill submitted to Bicester magistrates’ court. “Counsel,” it says, “have carried out and will carry out other work in relation to this type of prosecution in general.” If you are thinking of giving money to the RSPCA, you might as well cut out the middle man and send it straight to Mr Jeremy Carter-Manning QC instead.
Saturday, 5 January 2013
PETITION LAUNCED AGAINST RSPCA BULLY BOYS
We ask the government to investigate the RSPCA’s activities, especially where they infringe civl or legal rights.
They misuse funds which have been donated by members of the public specifically for animal welfare for their own political gain in bringing these often vexatious prosecutions. This petition asks that the government investigate fully the actions of the RSPCA, ensure that they are unable to prosecute anyone as that is the remit of the CPS and ensure tighter rules are in place from the charities commission to prevent registered charities from using funds for political lobbying or bringing private prosecutions.
https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43807
Monday, 31 December 2012
RSPCA BREAK CHARITY RULES
Trustees of the RSPCA broke charity rules by sanctioning a £300,000 prosecution of David Cameron’s local hunt, according to a cross-party group of MPs and peers including Lord Heseltine, the former Cabinet minister.
The MPs and peers quoted his comments and questioned why the RSPCA engaged three barristers and a solicitors’ firm called Fishburns, “a London-based specialist law firm providing legal services to the insurance and reinsurance markets”. The firm was “engaged despite the fact that the RSPCA has its own in-house legal department”, the group said in the letter, which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph.
They added: “We believe that this ‘staggering’ expenditure constitutes a clear breach of the ‘duty of prudence’ by the trustees of the RSPCA in that it cannot possibly be argued that charitable funds and assets have been used reasonably.”
The “duty of prudence” aims to conserve the property of the trust. It is not a duty set out in the Charities Act 2006 or any other statute, but reflects principles defined through cases dealt within the courts. The group’s concern was that “if the prosecution was justified exactly the same result could have been achieved for a fraction of the cost with prudent management”.
They added: “Instead hundreds of thousands of pounds donated to the RSPCA by members of the public have been squandered unnecessarily on lawyers’ fees. This is all the more relevant given that the evidence obtained by the RSPCA was never even passed to the CPS, which might well have chosen to prosecute in the normal way, had the public interest requirement been met. We ask that you urgently investigate our complaint and ensure that the charity deals with future legal expenditure more prudently.”
The Charity Commission, which regulates the activities of charities, said that any action taken after a breach of charity rules “would depend on the circumstances of the case”.
A spokesman added: “Undertaking prosecutions is in furtherance of the RSPCA’s charitable objects and is made clear to the public on their website.
“It is for trustees to consider the matter of bringing prosecutions in accordance with these duties and any other requirements which might apply, and for them to consider the issue of costs.”
On Friday night the RSPCA said its trustees had done nothing wrong and it was in the public interest for the Heythrop Hunt to be prosecuted. A spokesman added: “We recognise the pressures on the police force, who rightly look to the RSPCA as experts in animal welfare matters.
“We would of course be delighted if the police were in a position to take on investigations of this kind and examine evidence of the complexity and scale of that relating to the Heythrop Hunt case.”
The spokesman said that the Charity Commission’s chief executive, Sam Younger, gave his blessing to the leadership of Gavin Grant, the RSPCA’s chief executive, at a meeting earlier this year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9761645/RSPCA-trustees-broke-charity-rules-over-David-Cameron-hunt-prosecution.html#