Hi all...for what its worth this is my understanding of the situation from the last committee meeting I went to.
The main animal centres will be turning away strays. Like all rescues, the centres are also full to bursting and this means that when they have a cruelty case which HAS to come in then there is nowhere for them to go. Big organisation and big centres or not, they still only have a limited number of spaces unfortunately....thats always the way, big or small !
My understanding is (and please understand that is all it is....not an official line on everything...don't want to go and get myself into trouble as I have enough on my plate at the moment!lol)that the policy will be that cruelty and rescue cases will come first and be given priority and the branch manager will have discretion over the stray cases, but unlikey to be able to take many/any in.
As a branch I know we weren't overjoyed at the policy because ultimately it will mean we at local level are more likey to get overloaded (as the inspectors - which beleive it or not do care - will ask us to take them if there's no room at the centre.....but lets make it clear....it certainly isn't a policy that has to be adopted by the local branches....we will continue to do exactly what we've always done and help whatever cats we can in whatever way we can....as long as we have a space, a cat will have a good foster home until it finds a permenant one, whatever its situation and wherever it comes from!
It saddens me greatly when the RSPCA are given such a slating with a very 'broad brush' and the other organisations are held up to be 'purrfect' (excuse the pun
). We help many cats at this branch because we are quite often the ONLY ones that call people back! I had an email from a man the other week who's family is having to relocate and he is desperate to find a new home for the cat because they can't take pets with them and they have tried all the other family members...he's rung all the local rescues and we are the ONLY ones that have even bothered to get back to him. We can't take the cat in at the moment as we have no space but we've given him loads of advice, promised we will put the cat on our waiting list, and the cat is now on our rehoming page on CC and on our own website in the hope that we can rehome straight from them....the guy is so grateful and was prettty disillusioned with the other rescue centres tbh....as he said, even a polite 'sorry we can't help' would have been better than nothing. As I always say.....two sides to every story! And don't get me wrong...I'm not trying to be disrespectful to other local charities I respect
everything that
everybody does because I know we are all operating under extreme pressure often juggling rescue work with full time jobs and other commitments and there are times when something has to give...I think all the local rescues do a fantastic job and the area needs all of us...BUT....from experience its only ever the RSPCA that gets the bad press....because things are seen on a national level....there are lots of little local stories about other organisations which tbh aren't great at times either...
I don't see it affecting the link between HQ and the branches at all tbh...operating as a branch of a big organisation there will always be decisions that we agree with and those that we don't...its always been that way from what I can tell!lol We will remain RSPCA because to change would be incredibly difficult....we would have to set up as a different charity, change bank accounts, paperwork etc etc (I'm sure you get the picture) all this would do is take our focus away from helping cats (and to be honest I doubt whether we even have the expertise in our branch to know where to start!lol) and, at the end of the day we would still be doing exactly the same as we've always done as far as the cats are concerned, whether we operate under a different banner or not.
I know the RSPCA seems to get lots of bad press but I am proud to be associated with our branch as they have a brilliant attitude towards the cats that come into our care and we have a fantastic group of fosterers....thats whats important to me. In our area the RSPCA have a pretty good reputation
