Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Rescue & Rehoming => Rescue & Rehoming General => Topic started by: Mark on May 16, 2008, 00:13:13 AM
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I am posting this as Sharon hasn't
Sharon received a call today from the Social Services department which is way out of our area. The woman demanded that we take in 4 cats for their "Client" who had gone into hospital. Sharon explained that we are a rescue and not a cattery. Sharon was trying to be helpful but the woman became quite verbal and said it was "Our responsibility" to look after cats. Sharon asked if the were up to date on jabs. She suggested that if they got the cats to the vet for jabs, they could book them into a cattery. Sharon explained that it was their responsibilty to do this. The woman got really snotty and said her staff had better things to do that take cats to the vets. Anyway, the long & short is, she hung up on Sharon.
Sharon relayed this to me and was really peed off but remembered Ela's advice re the 1948 assistance act. She plans to phone the manager to put them straight.
This wasn't the end of it.
The practice manager of one of our vets rang Sharon and said they had booked the 4 cats in for jabs and told her that CP are paying!! >:(
Watch this space.
Hope you don't mind me starting this Sharon :evillaugh:
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What a cheek!
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:shify: :shify: :shify: :shify: :shify: :shify:
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I wouldn't waste my time with the SS manager, I would be going straight to the CE of the relevant local authority ...
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Have you a sympathetic local paper? It's always good to stir up some contraversy and this does - loads of letters about why should i waste my council tax vs letters on council should not expect charities to cope - at the end of the day, whatever side the general public fall into its one way of getting the message across that if you have pets you should always consider what will happen to them if you become ill or die!
plus if you get a good article about the council not providing the service it should - can you scan it and send us a copy (or give us the web link!) it might be something w can use to hand to our local council.
Our local council raised this issue at one of the animal welfare forums as they were paying about £20K a year on this which of course they couldn't afford. They were seeking agreement from the local rescues to limit the amount of time they paid for accomodation on the grounds that they didn't think it fair on an animal to be boarded for an indefinite time (which in principal we all agree with but in practise we all know how long they can stay in rescues!). I think 'cos of budget costs the reality of this is one less dog warden (which doesn't make a dot of difference to cat welfare and little to dog welfare as they seem to be more involved in fining people nowadays)
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Our local paper has a tie in with the RSPCA. They are "Proud Sponsors" :-: - there are huge articles every week. I can't complain as it is still for the animals. Last weeks was a reminder about collars with a photo of a lovely cat that suffered horrific injuries due to an elasticated collar. The article had a warning and advised people not to use collars at all but to microchip.
The thing is it wasn't even our local council - it was another one in Kent :Crazy: