Webshop newsletter

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without M&S Marks and Spencer's Christmas 3 for 2 is back! This offer includes beauty gifts, toiletries, cards, wrap and decorations; it's a great way to get more for less this festive season. Stocking Fillers Perfect for Secret Santa gifts M&S has lots of gifts for £10 or less, their fantastic range of stocking fillers is full of top gift ideas for men, women and kids. Toys and Entertainment At M&S you'll find lots of gifts for kids from the latest iPod, laptops, portable DVD players and gaming consoles. Find the entire selection here. Hampers Christmas hampers are a wonderful festive gift. Hampers include gourmet foods and specially selected wines that are sure to delight food lovers and bring Christmas cheer. All Christmas hampers include standard UK delivery. Every purchase you make via the links in this email will raise funds for RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch. Alternatively find our online shop here. Visit www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.

Purchases made through www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge are made according to the information and terms provided by the company making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are provided on the site.

Why neutering is only part of the answer

Caroline, who runs the Rabbit Residence where most of our rescued rabbits are fostered, always asks people who hand in rabbits for rehoming to complete a questionnaire. This has shown that at least 90% of surrendered rabbits originated via pet shop purchases. Some of these were the offspring of pet shop rabbits who had produced unexpected litters, either through incorrect sex identification or because of other errors, such as not realising how early rabbits become mature enough to breed.

Encouraging people who acquire rabbits as pets to keep them in neutered pairs would help to reduce the amount of reproduction due to human error (and greatly improve the rabbits welfare by providing them with companionship). However Caroline's evidence seems to show that it would have only a limited effect on addition to the total pet rabbit population as it wouldn't reduce the number of purpose-bred rabbits acquired through impulse purchases and then discarded to rescues when the purchasers find that keeping rabbits is hard work.

Christmas at E61

Please keep those donations coming...

We need to turn over 100 items daily at each shop if we're going to meet our targets to fund our clinic and other animal welfare services. 156 Newmarket High Street is a general-purpose charity shop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge specialises in second hand books, art and music and 61 Burleigh Street Cambridge (Emporium 61) has vintage/retro clothes, accessories and art.

We move donations between the shops, so please don't feel you have to get to any particular one.

How not to keep dogs

Last night's 10 o'clock call asking if we could take in a dog for rehoming was an almost point by point illustration of the reasons why we do home-checks for animal adopters and may appear over-fussy about where we will place dogs. None of the circumstances were the caller's fault, but the dog may well end up paying the ultimate price if no shelter can take her in — and in our present financial circumstances we certainly can't.

She's an adult Staffordshire cross, male parent unknown, friendly with people, but so aggressive to other dogs that her current owner doesn't dare walk her outside any more. She was originally acquired by her owner's ex-partner, who could control her enough to exercise her, but who has since moved out. Their garden fence isn't secure, so she can't given free-running exercise there, and not surprisingly, she now destroys things out of boredom and isn't house-clean.

It's very difficult to rehome a dog with known behaviour problems like this. Someone who's already attached to a dog may be prepared to put a lot of effort and money into retraining (or at least making their garden absolutely secure and providing lots of toys and mental stimulation). It's much less likely that anyone will take on a new dog knowing that there is going to be expense and worry, and possible heartache if the problems can't be worked around and the dog has to be returned or put to sleep.

Webshop newsletter

A gift from Play.com Play.com has put together some special promotions to help you out this Christmas season. Offers include £5 off when you spend £50. To claim your offer simply enter PLANW09 at the checkout. Every purchase made at Play.com will result in a donation to RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch. Don’t forget to use our online shop when shopping online, every purchase counts! Don't forget not only do these offers help you to save money; every purchase you make raises funds for RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch. Visit www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.