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The RSPCA issued a statement branding him as the 'ringleader' of a 'damaging campaign'. Meade admits he has been actively encouraging what he describes as 'country people' to join the Society for years but not, he insists, with any subversive intent.
'It just seemed to me that , as country people look after the bulk of the animals in this country it was sensible they should be represented,' he said. 'Apparently members of the Council want to ban anyone who dissents from their views. It is disgraceful that they should squander money on this shabby affair.'
(See today's Telegraph and Times if it isn't on the e- TELEGRAPH I'll put it up later)
Money is the least of the Society's problems. Its reserves last year stood at 91 million and its income from legacies alone was in excess of 37 million.
Many animal lovers like to remember the RSPCA, which boasts the Queen as its patron, in their will.
The Society spends a huge amount of time and money every year investigating animal cruelty and bringing prosecutions - last year legal bills were to excess of 1 million.
Critics claim that under Mr Davies the Society has become an overbearing crusader, appareatly more interested in hauling animal owners through the courts.
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Olive McFarland a 64 year old Suffolk smallholder and horse breeder, was raided by the RSPCA four years ago. She claims that a number of her horses injured themselves after being terrorised by low-flying military aircraft, but that the RSPCA inspectors were not interested in her explanation and forcibly removed all 27 animals. |
Since then she has been fighting through the courts to have the horses returned.
'The RSPCA is a brutal organisation,' she says. "They are much more interested in getting .scalps through pros- ecutions than in animal welfare.'
Judith. Varley, a student from Washington, Tyne & Wear, discov- ered her pony was lame in September last year. When she returned from calling a vet, the animal had disappeared. She says it took her two days to discover that it had been taken away by the RSPCA. She still has not got her pony back.
Pedigree cat breeder Carol Jewitt from Morpeth, Northumberland-
'It seems they get away with anything' , says she lost half her cats after a visit from the RSPCA in April, 1999.
"Their only reason for taking 12 cats away was that I had too many, which was ridiculous,' she says. 'I found the inspectors very intimidating. Since then we've been through hell.
Everyone thinks the RSPCA can do no wrong, but they can get away with anything.' The militarisation of the Society's front line - with uniforms and ranks ranging from 'Inspector" to 'Chief Superintendent* -also seems at odds with its simple pursuit of animal welfare.
Eyebrows are also raised over the large num- ber of animals that the Society puts down every year.
| Last year nearly 90,000 animals were destroyed because they were sick or injured and a further 1,600 because homes could not be found. |
But Mr Davies rejects criticism. I believe the RSPCA does a wonderful job,' he says. 'No other society does more for animal welfare.' Neither, he says, is the Society secretive or authoritarian.
| 'You only have to examine the way our council members are elected to see that the Society's business is conducted in a fair and democratic way.' |
Council member David Mawson, an admitted animals rights activist, may beg to disagree.
The Society spent nearly 40,000 in legal fees trying, unsuccessfully, to eject him from the Council. Mr Mawson, a 25-year-old London chef, complained to friends that he was the victim of a nine- month witch-hunt, a 'horrible experience'. However, he could not go into detail because members of the Council are not allowed to talk to the media.
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Ask me anything you like about anything except the RSPCA,' she said. 'I honestly can't say anything because I want to stay a member of the Council |
When I asked Celia Hammond, one of Britain's best-known animal welfare champions and a long-time member of the Council, what she thought of the RSPCA, she groaned. 'Ask me anything you like about anything except the RSPCA,' she said. 'I honestly can't say anything because I want to stay a member of the Council.' Members gagged, kangaroo courts, animal owners bullied and intimidated, a man of the stature of Richard Meade expelled... if these claims are true, then what has it all to do with preventing cruelty to animals? /cutting ends
Its a shame the Sunday Mail didn't hear the stories of the people in mental hospitals......even now and suicides and attempted suicides.