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RSPCA'S FREEDOM FOOD IS A FAILURE.
{Cutting fromTHE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) October 25, 2001,by ThomasPenny)
AN RSPCA scheme that guarantees high animal welfare standards at farms has been criticised by members of the charity's ruling council as ineffective.
The Freedom Food scheme is intended to ensure good practice among farmers, hauliers and abattoir owners through inspections and the voluntary acceptance of standards higher than those demanded by legislation. But critics within the RSPCA claim that the monitoring effort needed to make it a success is inadequate, with only 28 assessors employed to cover nine million animals.
Council members also claim that the scheme, which was predicted to finance itself, has cost the charity more than pounds 12 million since 1994.
The scheme, which was relaunched by Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at Westminster yesterday, promises that its animals are free from fear, distress, pain, injury and disease and that they should be free to express normal behaviour.
Secret filming at Freedom Food farms, to be shown on the BBC's Watchdog programme tonight, appears to show that some participants are failing to deliver promised "freedoms".
A spokesman for the RSPCA defended the scheme, saying that inspections had fallen behind because of restrictions in the swine fever and foot and mouth outbreaks but would be more effective as they were lifted.
A spokesman for Hillside Animal Sanctuary, which provided some of the undercover film, said: "The scheme has got far too big and it has become unmanageable. They are supplying on a massive scale to mainstream supermarkets so aren't able to properly monitor the farms."//cutting ends
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