Working for change

There's a growing movement in the US and Australia to press animal shelters to adopt the principles of "no-kill": basically a rejection of the idea that the majority of "unwanted" pets will have to be killed because there are far more strays than potential homes. 

One element of the strategy is to encourage voluntary animal welfare organisations to relinquish what we in this country would refer to as "the stray dogs contract" unless they can realistically aim to place all, or nearly all, animals capable of being adopted. In other words, animal welfare organisations ought not to spend funds doing society's dirty work by killing unwanted pets and so diverting money from saving animals.

This became RSPCA policy in the UK some two decades ago, and is the default position for all its branches. It was possible because of our peculiar organisation structure which means that animal welfare policy decided by the national governing council can be imposed on the branches countrywide.

It hasn't meant that no healthy animals are ever killed because they are unwanted, but the evidence suggests that a much higher percentage of animals are successfully rehomed than in the US. The 2007 Animal Welfare Indicators report collating statistics on a range of animal issues records that the RSPCA (overall) rehomed just over 70,000 animals and put down just under 4,000 for non-medical reasons (the lowest figure for five years). [Pet animal welfare indicators]

Working at arms length from the local authority pounds and shelters has its critics and means that some people will be very unhappy because there is a group of very visible animals in need and the RSPCA is not taking all of them. 

Unfortunately this can result in a vicious circle in which the branch limits its intake of animals because it has limited resources but has difficulty recruiting helpers to increase its resources so it can take more animals because people are angry about the animals who weren't taken in. Two members of the Sheffield forum say:

Q. "Looking at this thread and the earlier one about the RSPCA do I assume that we the people of Sheffield, who support the local RSPCA branch have no say in its running, or how they spend the money that we donate, does this place not have a committie that leads/gives direction to the staff ?. could we not as either a group or as individuals, contact this committie and ask them to change their direction, does the overall RSPCA headquaters at Horsham direct the local branch to this course of action ?.

How does one get onto the local committie, to try and change things, or is it a closed shop like most of these societies seem to be, anyone know ?"

A. "I wish i did know Shytalk. All i know is that people should become aware of the things the RSPCA do and DON'T do before supporting instead of just what they DO do. I am not saying they shouldn't support the RSPCA but theres many small rescue centres out there that save 100s of dogs each year from being put to sleep when they have been in pounds for a long period of time on very low funds due to people not knowing about them as most of the time the rescues are only small and arent pleading for support on television, they make do with what they have and ask around for help, they get it and make the most of it.

I would love to know how to persuade them to help pounds and rescue centres. There's been no luck so far."

Ultimately if you don't like the way your local branch is being run, you can join the RSPCA and stand for election against us. Or you can join and stand for election to work with us. We're not a closed shop and no-one will object to newcomers who want to work to increase the number of animals we can help. What can be a problem is if new recruits have a very limited agenda and want to close down existing services to release funds for their particular pet projects. There isn't much point increasing rehoming if you abandon animals who already have owners but will have to be put to sleep if there is no available veterinary help.

Busy day

Fortuitously, I'd already booked to take a day's leave so I could do the RSPCA stand at the University Careers Service "working for a charity" event, so I was available when Marion phoned this morning to say her road was completely iced up and she couldn't get her car out to cover reception at the clinic this morning.

After hiking across the white hell that is Coldham's common* I got my chance to practice my rusty skills on the client records system—fortunately to a fairly scanty waiting room, as I rapidly discovered that it has evolved quite a lot since I originally did the training course on the basis that it would be handy to have someone who lives close who could cover in an emergency. Even more fortunately, Tina who also lives just down the road, did get in so there were two of us to kick the printer every time it jammed again.

Finished just after twelve, then another hike into town to set up the info. stand, which may have meant some students who planned to see it in their lunch hour were disappointed. However it was really well attended with lots of interest in volunteering as well as possible job opportunities.

*Anyone viewing from Canada can be considered to have laughed enough by now. In our defence, the problem with British snow is that there's not enough of it and it's not cold enough. Most of the time cars are driving on a very thin layer of ice with a nice surface lubrication of wet slush, so tyre chains probably wouldn't help much.

Interested in becoming an RSPCA trustee?

Would you like to use your skills and experience in becoming one of the RSPCA's charity trustees? The Council discusses plans for the RSPCA and makes the decisions that will affect how the RSPCA deals with animal issues in the future.

The RSPCA Council comprises up to 25 volunteers elected to serve as the charity trustees of the Society.

Fifteen national Council members are elected by the votes of the whole RSPCA membership and serve for three years, retiring on a rotational basis... [read more on the National RSPCA website]

RSPCA branches are also directed by trustee bodies: each branch elects a minimum of seven and a maximum of fourteen committee members at its Annual General Meeting each year. Branch trustees normally play a more "hands on" rôle than members of the RSPCA Council, because branches rely less on employed staff, so the committee members are responsible for carrying out the board's decisions as well as making them in the first place.

To stand for election to the committee of your local branch you need to be an adult member of the society of at least three months standing at the time of the AGM, and to have been nominated by two other adult branch members. It is important that committee members are "team players" and willing to learn. Most people will have their own particular areas of interest, such as pet rehoming, veterinary treatment or campaigns, but it is important that everyone is prepared to take a balanced view and accept that all aspects of branch activities are important in fostering animal welfare locally.

If you might be interested in standing for the Cambridge branch committee at our next AGM, please email secretary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk. If you're not already a member of the Society, you will need to apply to join, and you can do this online using the link at the side of this blog.

Internet Resource on Trusteeship

The Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations (SAVO) has produced an online Trustee training site for anyone interested in becoming a charity trustee. The members of an RSPCA branch committee are all trustees of that branch, and most branches (including Cambridge) are always looking for new committee members. 

The SAVO site contains general-purpose information about the responsibilities of being a trustee and isn't specific to animal charites, but it is well worth working through.

If you might be interested in joining the committee of RSPCA Cambridge, please email secretary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk 

RSPCA Peterborough branch is also in desperate need of new trustees. If you might be interested in helping them, please email their Branch Development Adviser.

Strewth!

I've now got a new branch cheque book, so I can set the ball rolling to open an investment account with a local building society. 

The most straightforward logistics to achieve this seem to be for me to post out the application form to our Rehoming Co-ordinator (so she can fill in her details as Second Applicant).

She then posts the form on to our Branch Secretary.

Meanwhile I write out a cheque for the opening deposit and take it round to the Secretary for her counter-signature. She can also counter-sign the cheque for the deposit with the Co-Operative Bank at the same time.

Once she has the cheque, form and a copy of our Branch Rules, she takes them down to her local branch of the building society together with her ID.

And once that's been done, the Rehoming Co-ordinator can call in at the building society to prove who she is.

Meanwhile we need to take a copy of the signed minutes of this month's committee meeting and send it to the building society to prove we really did decide to open an account.

Going down the tube fast...

If this turns out to be true, I'm not going to be able to replace the branch emergency contact mobile phone either - it's an elderly pre-payment Nokia mainly used by me to provide a means for clinic patients to contact us for veterinary help outside normal working hours. It's also the most convenient way to provide a 24/7 branch contact for emergency help with the cost of seeing a private vet. Bother, bother, bother.

Working on it

Still trying to open a deposit account. Latest hurdle is that all the people listed as signatories for the current account need to prove who they are again by providing photo-identification and a recent utility bill showing their name and address. This in spite of the fact that the current account's been open since at least the 1950s and all the signatories have been on the account for the past three years.

Also working on the lease of 61 Burleigh street - the shop premises we hope to move into so we can expand our charity shop. Landlord is reluctant to accept that we're willing to pay either a premium or consider a rent rise, but not both (and certainly not in the current economic climate when they should think themselves lucky to have a potential tenant at all).

Reserve funds again

Trepidation about the general state of the economy. I think it's unlikely that there's any risk that the funds in our bank account could be lost however bad things get, but it's not looking good for our charity shop income if customers aren't spending because they're worried about the safety of their jobs. The CEO of the national RSPCA (as opposed to the local branches) must be feeling pretty glum about invested funds as those do go up and down in value along with the Stock Market (and in this case, down). 

We are extremely fortunate to have received legacy income this year and without it things would be looking very bleak indeed.

Things are already looking very serious for the Rabbit Residence Rescue where most of our branch rescue rabbits are fostered. Please consider sponsoring a rescue rabbit, or adopting a pair of rabbits who are suitable for rehoming (not all of the rabbits featured on the web page came to Rabbit Residence from the RSPCA).

No wonder there's a credit crunch

Opening a bank account (to invest the funds we don't need to spend right away) is much more difficult than you might think. Just setting up a second interest-bearing account with the bank we already use for the current account involves two personal visits, a form covering 6 sides of A4 and signatures of two trustees. Creating a completely new deposit account with a bank that doesn't have any track record with us means a 24 page form, providing personal banking details and addresses of three trustees, signatures of three trustees and giving the names of all the other trustees.

I suppose it does make money-laundering more difficult, but I am beginning to feel that a sock under the bed would be less time-consuming. 

August Figures

A very slow month for rehoming: only three cats and one bird. We provided veterinary treatment for 227 dogs, 122 cats, 8 rabbits and 12 miscellaneous animals and neutered 15 dogs and 8 cats.

Total outgoings were £12,409 and we raised £8,411 with shop takings still rather depressed although total sales at the Cambridge shops were up £800 compared with July.

July statistics

Just got the records for July collated. During the month, our branch:

Provided low-cost veterinary treatment for 205 dogs, 115 cats, 11 rabbits and 14 miscellaneous small animals.

Rehomed 4 dogs, 3 cats and 2 birds.

Microchipped 11 dogs and 10 cats

Neutered 13 dogs, 12 cats and a rabbit

Our total outgoings were £16,904 (this amount also covers wages for our three shop staff, rent for the charity shop in Newmarket and our annual audit fee). We raised £7,811, mostly from sales at the charity shops and clinic fees.

Branch Reserves Policy

Now that we actually have some reserves (the result of a generous legacy, which pulled us back from a very dicey hand-to-mouth situation) we need to have a policy about the way we manage them, and at our committee meeting this week we agreed the formula below.

“Owing to the nature of our activities and supporter base, branch income is composed of a fairly regular component from fundraising activities and clinic fees and an unpredictable legacy component. This means that we receive occasional very large amounts which need to be used gradually to support the regular income rather than being spent during the year in which we receive them. We aim to keep our free reserves between an upper limit set at twice our annual operating costs and a lower limit fixed at the amount which would permit 12 months continued activity at current levels of regular earned income. 

At any point when free reserves dip below this 12 month safety limit we will have to begin cutting back the level of service which we provide.

At current income and expenditure rates the lower reserve limit is £41,000 and the upper limit is £260,000.”

In other words, if our steady income from the shops, clinic fees, collection tins etc. is £3,000 a month short of what we currently spend, we can calculate how long it would take before our saved funds ran dry. If the remaining time drops to 12 months we need to make emergency cuts until spending is in balance with the steady income. 

Our free reserves at the moment (after allowing for outgoings which we know will take place at the year end) amount to £120,000. This would sustain our current expenditure for three years provided our regular income stays at its existing levels. It means our work is reasonably secure, but there isn't much scope for "capital" projects (such as building an extension to our clinic for a "sluice room", which is one of the things we'd like to do).