This is the newsletter published by and for members of the RSPCA. Because of the deep discontent that it shows within the membership we feel that it should have wider publicity than it currently receives. We have maintained the content accurately, but have lost some of the formatting. Past editions will be added as time permits. We hope that publishing this will do some good and lead to a much needed reform of the society. contains links that might be of further interest.

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Watchdog Newsletter Number 81 July 2000

Even those oblivious to horseracing the rest of the year cannot resist the Grand National. As its name suggests, it is one of that handful of British sporting occasions which serve as a collective moment in the life of the nation. Along with the Cup Final and Wimbledon, the Grand National is an event which draws in people who ordinarily have no interest in the sport. Non-betters suddenly fancy a flutter; non-experts start studying the form.
This year however, the National has had the worst possible overture. It has been the build-up not to a festival, but a funeral: yesterday Aintree claimed its fifth horse in two days. The images of fine animals, leaping, falling and finally quivering before death are distressing to all who see them. It seems a cruel kind of madness to keep going with an event which ends in so much pain, so often. Animal rights activists have now ratcheted up their familiar demand for a ban, threatening instead the possibility of prosecution. A group known as Animal Aid suggests a case could be brought under the 1911 Protection of Animals Act.
Such instant responses, fuelled by emotion, are understandable. People feel that for the tape simply to come down this afternoon as if nothing had happened would be wrong, For their part, the organisers claim the problem amounts to nothing more than horribly bad luck. Normally, they say, only three in every thousand racehorses are killed. For five to fall in two days is, according to the JockeyClub, an extraordinary rarity, "a statistical blip". Besides, they add, only two of the five met their deaths on the National course itself – a course which has been vastly improved to learn the lessons of previous, fatal years. In this they find an unexpected ally in the RSPCA. When their representative walked the track at Aintree, he was impressed enough to report that "it could not have been in better condition".
The National’s organisers will use this verdict to buttress their case. But it may, paradoxically, hinder more than it helps. For no longer can Aintree promise to make future improvements to save horses’ lives. They have done all they can – and still five had to be put down.’ This leaves than open to more fundamental pressure, enabling activists to say that horseracing itself is an inevitably lethal sport. Whatever else happens today, the onus is now on Aintree to ensure that there is never another National year like this one.

"The images of fine animals, leaping, falling and finally quivering before death are distressing to all who see them. It seems a cruel kind of madness to keep going with an event which ends in so much pain so often".

         "Establishments will either import primates directly or carry out tests abroad where the UK has no control over the conditions in which these animals are kept".

Did the spokesman not know that Shamrock monkeys were exported abroad’?

An RSPCA branch committee member visited HLS and rang Watchdog to report what he had seen. He was very upset at what he had seen. When a small monkey. In the monkey ’playroom’, grabbed his arm and looked at him with pleading eyes, he burst into tears, and could not remain in the place any longer.

However, an-RSPCA Supt was reported in the same Evening Telegraph as speaking out AGAINST the crusade to shut down HLS – quoting the same old excuse that animal testing would only go abroad

Does he not know that huge protests about the cruel treatment of animals in labs go on in other places?

 

A Declaration Against Speciesism

Inasmuch as we believe that there is ample evidence that many other species are capable of feeling, we condemn totally the infliction of suffering upon our brother animals, and the curtailment of their enjoyment, unless it be necessary for their own individual benefit-.

We do not accept that a difference in species alone (any more than a difference in race) can justify wanton exploitation or oppression in the name of science or sport, or for food, commercial profit or other human gain.

We believe in the evolutionary and moral kinship of all animals and we declare our belief that all sentient creatures have rights to life, liberty and the quest for happiness.

We call for the protection of these rights.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is to pull the plug on a £20m overdraft with the controversial animal testing laboratory Huntington Life Sciences after bank staff were threatened by animal rights protesters.

CONGRATULATIONS!
’STOP HUNTINGDON ANIMAL CRUELTY’
CAMPAIGNERS!

a)     We believe that Regional Representatives should be democratically elected by all the RSPCA members within the regions and that they should resign from branch office on election to Council.

b)    We believe that Working Parties are a waste of time and money and just serve to inflate the egos of would be careerist chairmen. Experienced committee members will know that the article on the following page gives valid reasons for our opposition.

c)    We want to see the RSPCA set up without further delay low-cost neuter clinics for cats and dogs and to pay more attention to the experience of Celia Hammond.

d)    We believe that the Branch Co-ordinator system (or whatever fancy name they now bear) needs reconsidering. We believe them to be unnecessary, underworked and overpaid.

e)    We want to see the AGM restored to its former full day length and returned to London, which has direct rail access from all over the  country. The AGM is the most important meeting of the year. It is NOT a piddling little meeting to be hidden away in odd places.

I am angry and sickened. I have seen a confused two-day old calf beaten to the ground because it tried to follow its mother when they were separated – for good. I have seen newborn lambs shivering to death in December. I have witnessed the pathetic sight of terrified little calves being shipped abroad to the torture of veal crates – and I have seen the same calves, almost incapable of walking, driven to their squalid deaths with electric goads. This was in the days when farmers took the money and said nothing. And just today, I have received a report of a caring farmer who removed a cow from the field, leaving her newborn calf behind to starve to death.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

We do not know how many motions were submitted by members for discussion at the AGM because once again, by order of the Council, a cloud of secrecy has been draped over them. We guess that there must have been more than the 21 sent in last year – 25 perhaps? Once again only four were accepted. ONE THING IS CERTAIN, these motions have to be kept secret because if the unaccented motions were as absurd as the one sent in by Richard Ryder and Eileen Chamberlain, it would make the Council appear even more out of touch and insensitive.

WHY DO COUNCIL MEMBERS. HAVE TO SUBMIT MOTIONS? Are they not content with the perks of free travel and hotel accommodation that they have to take up valuable time from the pitiful 2 1/2 hour AGM? If they have to submit motions why did they reject one from David Mawson which sought to air discussion on a subject of national interest – the closing down of Shamrock Farm?

For those who did not receive the AGM Agenda, here is the motion referred to above.

"That British Farmers be congratulated on leading the world in high standards of animal welfare and that the findings of farm animal welfare science be further publicised by the Society".

Richard Ryder Eileen Chamberlain

 

"I am not opposed to hunting as such I do not agree with the RSPCA ban on fox hunting until such a time that alternative methods of control can be found. I feel that fax hunting is the best method of controlling foxes and that was my view to my own supporters. My husband was the Master of Foxhounds, my grandson has also been Master of Foxhounds, so I know very well what I am talking about ".

"The statement which was circulated at the 1997 AGM was a sheet of paper containing some selectively edited comments made by me to a hoax caller claiming to be from the Countryman Magazine, but who was in fact attempting to discredit me by altering wherever possible the inference to be put on my remarks. "(2000)

"I have from an early age abjured the use of meat and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men ".

FREEEDOM FOOD and Assured British Meats who will take over the management of the scheme can never achieve the vision of Leonardo da Vinci because farm animals will always end up in the slaughterhouse.

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Our report on the AGM and on the election results will be in the next newsletter. We get lots of calls from members all over the country. We are repeatedly told about the very bad conditions for animals in the NE of the country. There is criticism of the enormous amount of bumpf and bureaucracy. Members from all over the country HATE the changing of the AGM venue and want it back in London. One member from Durham pointed out how easy it was to get to London but impossible to get to Telford. Most members beg us not to reveal their names for fear of victimisation. There is always tremendous praise for Celia Hammond and for the youngest Council member David Mawson who takes the trouble to LISTEN. Anyway thanks for all your calls and letters. We would be grateful for help with the cost of postage etc.!!

The Watchdogs