 |
SPLIT IN TWO BY EXTREMISTS AND UNDER FIRE FROM THOUSANDS OF PET OWNERS, BRITAIN'S OLDEST - AND RICHEST ANIMAL CHARITY IS AT CRISIS POINT
As the worthy members of the RSPCA convene for their annual general meeting in Wales later this month, there will no doubt be a rit- ual licking of wounds. For Britain's biggest, richest and oldest animal welfare charity is riven with discord and under attack from all sides. At the heart of the hostility is a bitter struggle between fox-hunt supporters, who believe the Society has been infiltrated by loony animal rights activists, and campaigners for animal rights, who believe the Society has been infiltrated by blood- thirsty hunters.
The animal rights lobby directs particular loathing at the RSPCA's senior employees who, it says, are overpaid, ultra-conservative, author- itarian and ridiculously secretive.
The hunt supporters detest the elected members of the charity's gov- erning Council who, they say, are either no-hppers or urban vegetarians with no interest in country issues.
Complicating the picture are the aggrieved owners of animals impounded by the RSPCA who are queueing up to sue, accusing the Society of arrogantly abusing its power and using its uniformed inspec- tors like a militaristic police force. A spokesman for the Charity Com- mission confirmed that it received 'quite a number' of complaints about the activities of the RSPCA.
On the Internet you can find plenty of individuals venting their anger against the organisation.
Victims Of The RSPCA, for example, is campaigning for a Gov- ernment inquiry into the activities of the charity, claiming that it uses donated funds to violate the civil rights of animal owners.
Margaret House, co-founder of Watchdog, a critical newsletter, says: 'The , RSPCA is undergoing l the worst period of dis- | cord it has ever known. Members are treated in a despicable manner. Ttiere is no regard for natural justice and the secrecy is appalling.'
Mrs House, of Horley, Surrey, first joined a local branch of the RSPCA in 1974 and persuaded her late husband, a consultant anaesthetist, to become Chairman.
'When we started asking questions about the way the charity was run, every effort was made to remove Us,' she says.
Watchdog is now a persistent thorn in the RSPCA's vulnerable flank. Along with her co-founders, Mrs House was at one time expelled from the organisation but later Split in two by extremists and under fire from thousands of pet owners, Britain's oldest and richest animal charity is at crisis point Money squandered on 'witch-hunts* reinstated. She says she is now reg- ularly harassed by RSPCA inspectors acting on 'anonymous' complaints that she mistreats her own dog, a Jack Russell-cross terrier which, ironically, she adopted from the RSPCA.
'People are harassed, victimised for speaking to the Press, hauled before terrible kangaroo courts if they step out of line. Is this the way a charity should be run?' she asks.
Indeed, the charity, founded in 1824 with the laudable aim of preventing cruelty to animals, now seems to be generating enmity both inside and out.
Many critics blame the RSPCA's 90,000-a-year director-general, Peter Davies, a retired Major Gen- eral appointed in 1991. Mr Davies was at the centre of controversy recently when Lord Mancroft, deputy chairman of the British Field Sports Society, revealed that at a meeting with the director-general in 1996 Mr Davies had suggested hunt supporters be encouraged to join the RSPCA to counter the influx of animal rights extremists.
 |
PETER DAVIES |
Mr Davies categorically denies Lord Mancroft's account of the meeting, but Lord Mancroft points out that there were a number of other people present who have similar recall to his own.
'I am firmly opposed to hunting with dogs,' says Mr Davies, 'and I have worked tirelessly to see an end to this cruel and outdated so-called sport. My wife and I have long been committed supporters of the cam- paign to ban hunting.'
Mr Davies claims the Countryside Animal Welfare Group (CAWG) tried to infiltrate the charity to overturn its policy of opposition to hunting. Earlier this year, the Society won a ruling in the High Court that it could exclude people from membership if they had ulterior motives for joining. Subsequently, 500 applications were 'frozen' pending investigation
. Event rider Richard Meade,(SEE TODAY'S TELEGRAPH AND TIMES)Three- time Olympic gold medal winner and long-time member of the RSPCA, was said to be behind the CAWG and was hauled before a disciplinary hearing of the ruling Council in London this week.
Meade's barrister responded with an elegant statement written by Sir John Mortimer QC pointing out that Meade's only 'crime' was to support fox-hunting. "This most inappropriate expulsion,' he argued, 'if allowed, will merely show that those who speak most loudly atK>Bt animal rights have often lost sight of the fact that there are human rights also.' Members of the council refused to accept there was no legal basis for the hearing and later in the day it was announced that Meade had been EXPELLED.
Click here to return to previous page