I know this is strictly not about pets, but as many of us on here think very little about the RSPCA I thought you would be interested in reading about yet again their appalling behaviour. I am fuming!!

"Nature lover leaves wildlife haven to RSPCA – who sell it to be bulldozed and built on..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-built-on.html

That's very sad, it annoys me and I didn't know him or the area, so I can imagine how angry the family, friends and locals must be. I've had a few dealings with my local RSPCA and would never give them anything, they're worse than useless.

That is outrageous.

I certainly hope someone stabs whoever made that decision at the RSPCA square in the eye.

It is the Daily Wail - skilled in winding up readers who want to believe all it tells them.

However, be sure you understand how the RSPCA is set up. If you have a local RSPCA branch and want to donate money to be used locally, make sure you give it directly to your local branch. A lot of RSPCA branches (as opposed to RSPCA centres) get no support at all from "head office" and are separately registered charities - so if you donate to "head office" the money may go on political lobbying (as an example) rather than rescuing, treating, sterilising and otherwise helping local animals.

Yes I do realise it was the Daily Mail

The same is true of Cats Protection - leave it to a specific branch. Also I gather that if it's more than £10k then head office still get their dibs in it.

And they've nicely wound you up with no guarantee there are any facts in the story.

The RSPCA's statement is enough facts for me.

http://www.rspca.org.uk/utilities/statement/270412

Statement on legacy


We are incredibly grateful to Mr Brown for his generous bequest. The funds raised from the sale of his house were put towards the upkeep of cats as he requested.

Mr Brown wished us in the legacy not to sell the land for building though this wasn't a binding condition of the will*. There was no mention of wildlife. However it is extremely regrettable that we were then not able to use the land in accordance with Mr Brown’s wishes. We considered other options including using it for local RSPCA branches. At the time of Mr Brown’s death in 2007, the plot (0.40 acres) was not viable for use by the RSPCA, especially as there was a moratorium on any planning consents except for housing association schemes or a nursing home.

This moratorium was due to be in place until 2012, but was then lifted in 2008. At this point it became apparent that the value of land could decrease which would mean less money being available for animals under RSPCA care. So the then Chief Executive decided to proceed with the marketing of the property and the land.

In 2009 we asked HSBC to ask the estate agent who was selling the property and land to notify all adjoining owners of the marketing once it commenced.
The estate agent set a date of July 2010 for bids to be given in. 15 were received and HSBC accepted the highest offer. The administration was completed by August 2011.

The RSPCA has used the money from the sale of the land for its animals at the nearest wildlife rescue centre, Stapeley Grange as well as some other RSPCA centres.

*a 'wish' is different to a 'condition', which is legally binding.

I dont expect anything else from this dispicable so called charity, they could not care less about animals, especially wild ones
Never ever give a penny to these people, they will fleece anyone and fob people off when they need their help.

SHut the beggars down I say.

I've no great fondness for the RSPCA, but I can see a situation where they could not reasonably maintain the land as a wildlife preserve.

I guess it comes down to one of two things: Did the RSPCA enter into correspondence with Mr Brown before he died -- i.e. were they aware of his will before he died and did they fail to tell him that they might not be able to adhere to his request? Or was the first thing they knew about the bequest was when Mr Brown's solicitor got in touch telling them that he'd left them the land?

I knew even before I opened this thread that the title was sarcastic! The public are really cottoning on to how bad the RSPCA is, every time I've seen the charity discussed lately people have been very negative about them.


Absolutely agree, shut them down and then more money can go to charities that actually help animals. So many people donate to the RSPCA because it's the only animal charity they know of, most of them probably don't realise how utterly unhelpful they are.