Pics from the Mill Road Switch-on

The RSPCA bookshop is just opposite this row of lights.

Romsey Recommends

As part of our contribution to the Mill Road Winter Fair event on 5th December we'll be putting up a window display in our bookshop at 188 on the theme of "Romsey Recommends". To take part, just drop into the shop and fill in a form giving the author and title of your book recommendation and we'll add it to the display.

Feel free to include a photo (of yourself or of the book), or you can be anonymous if you prefer.

Closing date for recommendations November 30th

Why subsidised veterinary care is part of our work

Occasionally people complain that we spend lots of money helping people who really ought to have thought whether they could afford pets, or at least whether they could afford to have so many of them. There are several reasons why this service is essential:

• It's much better to help otherwise good and caring owners to keep their pets than to force them to give them up for rehoming—particularly in the case of older animals who would spend a long time in kennels. There is no point spending even more money just to punish the owners.
• If there is no source of help then people may panic and do irrational things. They may abandon animals, or simply hope that the problem will go away if they ignore it. This can sometimes result in extreme suffering, for example if the animal has broken bones.
• A major part of the "law enforcement" side of the RSPCA involves prosecuting owners who didn't seek veterinary treatment for their animals, or who allowed their animals to breed until they had far more than they could look after. If we are to be tough about enforcing owners' "duty to care" we have a corresponding obligation to make it possible for them to care.

But... I would like to see some of the people we help recognise that our funds are not a bottomless pit. Many of them do take on more animals from a genuine desire to rescue them, but it does put more and more strain on us.

Mill Road Christmas lights switch-on this Saturday!

The Mill road Christmas lights will be switched on at 5 pm this Saturday, 14th November. The actual switch-on will happen just in front of Cutlacks ironmongers, so why not visit our bookshop at 188 before wandering on down?

Shop for Christmas online and support us

As well as our charity shops we have a webshop: basically this is an web page which acts as a starting point which links to sales pages of merchants who will pay us a small amount of commission for all purchases which began from a link on our page. You can see the link collection at http://buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge

When new customers subscribe to Sky+ HD via the webshop RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch will receive £120! If you are thinking of joining Sky please do so via our webshop so we can receive this huge donation.

Nostalgic children's books at 188 Mill Road

Many thanks for the generous donations of books we've had over the past few weeks. As you can see from our window display these included lots of very nice children's ones.

Animal Welfare Statistics for October 2009

During the past month our clinic treated 419 animals - 266 dogs, 137 cats, 10 rabbits and 6 miscellaneous small furries. We neutered 13 dogs and 11 cats and issued 24 vouchers for emergency treatment at private vets. Six dogs and five cats were terminally ill and had to be put to sleep to prevent suffering.

We rehomed three dogs, eight cats and a rabbit, and took in another six injured stray cats.

Christmas is coming!

Christmas cards and logo gift items now on sale at 188 Mill Road and 61 Burleigh Street, including these smart T-shirts and our very own photo-mugs with pics of animals rehomed by the branch. Emporium 61 in Burleigh St also has the 50/50 range of new clothes and accessories created by our talented staff.

Mole and Ratty

This is Mole looking out of his house a little apprehensively. He needs a home together with Ratty, his brother. They were both left with a friend by their previous owner, who never returned to collect them.

For some reason this seems to happen a lot with rats, possibly because it's more difficult to get permission to keep them than for other small animals, or perhaps because it's more likely that the person left holding the rat gets fed-up and contacts us than it would be if the pet was a hamster. Rats get a bit of a bad press, but most of them are actually much less inclined to bite than hamsters (who are solitary and have fewer inhibitions about inflicting summary chastisement on humans who prod them without being properly introduced).

Turn out your wardrobes!

Do you have any clothes you don't wear any more, or maybe unopened packets of underwear you bought when you were a size smaller?

All of them can be used to raise valuable funds at our charity shops at 188 Mill Road, 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge and 156 High Street, Newmarket. Even worn or damaged clothes can still be sold for recycling and ones that are in good condition but old-fashioned are surprisingly saleable at the moment.

We can also sell "quirky" items such as musical instruments, old cameras and 1950s wireless sets, as well as ornaments, pictures and books.

188 Mill Road specialises in 2nd hand books and 61 Burleigh street in vintage clothes, but either of them would be delighted to receive your donations and we will arrange to transfer them to the appropriate shop if needed.

We would also be grateful for donations of old towels for use as washable animal bedding.

188 Mill Road and 156 High Street, Newmarket are open Monday-Saturday and 61 Burleigh street is open Tuesday-Sunday.

Should the RSPCA campaign for veganism and abandon Freedom Food?

This was put to me as a serious question and I think it deserves a serious answer (as always, please remember that these are my personal views and no-one else is responsible).

Firstly, I believe there's a substantial moral issue about the desirability of trying to bring about a future in which no animals would live in association with humans. This would mean substantial disruption even for some wild species which have adapted to live in a landscape which has been modified by human activities (such as keeping grazing animals). Some domestic animals would become extinct; in some cases this might be better for them than continuing to be kept inhumanely but this wouldn't always be the case. Some would possibly survive as feral populations, bringing further questions about the justifiability or otherwise of human control of their numbers. Unless we reintroduced large carnivores, it's likely that populations of some wild animals such as deer would still need to be limited by human action. Members of some species would have significantly more uncomfortable lives if they had to live in a feral state.

Secondly, there's the practical question of whether an RSPCA campaign in favour of veganism might overall do more harm than good. My answer to this is that it might do good provided it remained one element of a range of activities that were generally acceptable to the broad mass of the animal-loving public. If anyone is doubtful about the possibility of doing harm, they should look at the reaction to Lord Stern's advocacy of vegetarianism as a means of reducing climate change.

On the whole ordinary animal lovers are quite sympathetic to other people who don't eat meat because they care about animals and they would probably be happy, or at least unconcerned by, a campaign to increase the number of vegans. In any case, reducing the total consumption of meat is almost certainly the only realistic way to make high-welfare systems viable; otherwise the pressure to for intensive farming will be irresistible.

Once campaigns get more radical than that, suspicion begins that the campaigners don't really care about animals but are "political". At worst, a substantial campaign in favour of veganism might be used to justify claims that RSPCA investigations of cruelty to animals are part of a plot to destroy animal farming.

There has already been a petition on the number ten website asking for a government enquiry into the policies of the RSPCA apparently with the intention of removing an alleged bias in favour of animal rights. In fact the government petitions site demonstrates exactly how oddly the RSPCA is viewed (by both friends and enemies) as no other charity attracts remotely similar numbers of demands for the government to do something about it. Topics include one asking the Prime Minister to tell the RSPCA to abandon the Freedom Food scheme (rejected on the grounds that this was nothing to do with the government.)

Thirdly, of course, there are legal limitations on the way the RSPCA can campaign. With the introduction of a more rigorous public benefit test for charities it is likely that more campaigns may be challenged in the future, particularly if they appear to have political aspects.

The main objections made to the Freedom Food initiative appear to be:

• That it may make agriculture more acceptable to people who otherwise might demand that animal farming is ended altogether.
• That it operates on the assumption that farmers basically want to do the right thing and need technical advice about the best ways to improve welfare instead of assuming that people will be cruel to animals unless they are carefully watched.
• That it does no good because the only people willing to spend more on high-welfare products are those who would become vegans if they were only pushed hard enough.
• That the RSPCA could stop all use of animals if it wanted to.
• The objector in fact dislikes something else that the RSPCA does (e.g. campaigning for a ban on hare-coursing) and Freedom Food is just a convenient weapon.

But if it is assumed that most people can't be trusted to treat animals humanely it becomes difficult to explain how closing Freedom Food could be expected to produce a net increase in the number of vegetarians and vegans. In contrast, there is at least some evidence that people who are not prepared to become vegetarians are willing to pay more for higher welfare.

Freedom Food is by no means perfect, but anyone who believes it should be abolished needs to prove it would be preferable for welfare certification schemes to be controlled entirely by commercial interests. My own view is that it is better to have an imperfect scheme which is continually under pressure to improve.

Twitching kitten

This kitten was found wandering in the street and taken to a vet by a member of the public under an RSPCA log number. She's very pretty and friendly but seems to have some kind of nervous system problem as she's unsteady and has trouble getting into her litter tray in a hurry. As the pic shows, there's nothing wrong with her appetite and the vets think the best plan is to wait and see whether the unsteadiness gets worse or better.

She was full of worms and fleas, which we've treated, so crossed fingers that an improvement in her general health will help with the other problems.

More on pet neutering

The Regional Board this Saturday agreed another year's matched funding for help with pet neutering in Region East and there was also an interesting discussion on aims, achievements and how we measure effectiveness.

We've got records of activity going back over the past century and we can demonstrate the effectiveness of neutering in transforming a situation where every female cat in Britain gave birth each spring and her kittens were almost all killed to one where every healthy kitten born can find a home.

At first sight it might look as though if we could do even more neutering we would reduce the cat population to the point where we could guarantee a home for every unwanted adult cat too.

But it that true? In the 1900s killing of very young kittens was essentially a method of birth control—people like the author Henry Salt cared just as much about their adult cats as we do today. Neutering probably hasn't decreased the population of adult cats—in fact we know it has increased; probably because cats are more suitable than dogs for families where both parents work outside the home. By providing help with neutering costs we are probably ensuring that some people neuter who otherwise would be deterred by the costs, but some of them would probably have got their cats neutered anyway.

There's possibly an optimum equilibrium position where putting more money into neutering is subject to the law of diminishing returns and would be more usefully spent elsewhere (for example on veterinary treatment so that more adult animals with injuries can be rehomed).

Blog Action Day 2009: Did you know?

Buying secondhand from charity shops and donating unwanted items instead of chucking them in the bin is a way to reduce your carbon footprint.

In the UK, between 4 and 5% of domestic waste is made up of clothing and other textiles. About 25% of this is recycled by charities and their associated trading companies.

The Salvation Army Trading Company recently sponsored research to find the energy used by reuse/recycling of textile items and whether this resulted in net energy saving benefit (and hence reduced carbon emission).

The energy footprint of textiles was estimated using a streamlined life cycle assessment which was restricted in scope in order to target specific aspects of the footprint, in this case energy consumption.

Taking into account extraction of resources, manufacture of materials, electricity generation, clothing collection, processing and distribution and final disposal of wastes it was shown that for every kilogram of raw cotton replaced by use of second hand clothing approximately 65 kWh is saved, and for every kilogram of polyester around 90 kWh is saved. Hence, reuse and recycling of donated clothing results in reduced carbon emissions in comparison to purchasing new clothing made from raw materials.

(Life cycle assessment for reuse/recycling of donated waste textiles compared to use of virgin material: An UK energy saving perspective Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 94-103. Anne C. Woolridge, Garth D. Ward, Paul S. Phillips, Michael Collins and Simon Gandy)

Where we are in Cambridge City


View RSPCA in Cambridge in a larger map


Map showing the location of our clinic and shops.

Donate, Don't Dump

Would anyone out there be interested in organising a "D-Day" event at their place of work? The basic idea is fairly simple:

On a designated day, a business will host a donations drive. Staff will be encouraged to bring in to work one good quality item they no longer want or need, which will be given to a waiting charity representative. These goods can then be sold through charity shops to raise money for charities. In the current economic climate, some shops have found they are running out of stock as people are more likely to buy than to give; this is an easy and fun way of getting more donations into stores, where they can be sold for maximum profit.

Why should people only bring in one thing?
There are three reasons why this is a good idea:

• It is easier for someone to carry only one piece of clothing, record or book into work than to carry a bag full. This means people are more likely to do it.
• People can choose the one best thing to give away. Donations are often of better quality if they are picked out in this way.
• A lot of people bringing in one good quality item means a lot of donations. Of course, people can bring in more donations if they want to!

The Association of Charity Shops website has lots more information about organising a Donation Day at work.

In fact, textile items which aren't quite good enough to sell in the shops can still make quite a bit of money for us if we sell them for recycling, so don't let the emphasis on high quality donations put you off. Also don't be discouraged if some donations look rather old-fashioned—this is a feature, not a bug, as 50s, 60s and 70s clothes are popular at the moment.

If you're interested in running a Donation Day at work, please email emporium61@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk

And on Goldfish

Slightly indignant query from my ardently animal-rights neighbour about RSPCA policy on goldfish as prizes. I vaguely thought this had been banned under the Animal Welfare Act, but she says there was a fair nearby where fish were being offered as prizes and a mutual friend complained to the RSPCA and was told it was still legal. They clearly felt this was a pretty poor show & somehow our fault, so I assured her we certainly do have a policy against it and, in fact, had tried quite hard to get a ban into the Act.

I've done a quick search and found the exact legal position on the e-petitions website:

"The Government considers that goldfish can be given as prizes provided the welfare of the animals is met and that suffering is not being caused.

The Government understands the concerns felt by some that animals should not be given as prizes. That is why the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the “2006 Act”) restricted the law on giving animals as prizes to people aged 16 years or over. The Act makes it an offence to fail to provide for the welfare needs of animal. The maximum penalty is a fine of £5,000 or 6 months imprisonment, or both. It is also an offence to cause an animal any unnecessary suffering. The maximum penalty is a fine of £20,000 or 6 months imprisonment, or both. The 2006 Act applies to goldfish given as prizes.

Under the 2006 Act anyone can take forward a prosecution if they think they have the necessary evidence or they can report it to the relevant body (local authority or RSPCA).

The law prevents children, unaccompanied by someone aged 16 years or over, obtaining an animal as a prize The Government believes that responsible adults should be able to decide for themselves whether to enter into a competition where an animal is given as a prize."

Which unfortunately doesn't spell out that the RSPCA can't simply issue a ban by fiat — it's necessary to produce evidence that the fish are not having their welfare needs met (over and above the welfare implications of being in a plastic bag). And incidentally it means the mutual friend will probably never support the RSPCA again even though it's not really a reasonable reaction.

Further thoughts on funding veterinary help

In some ways this is a vicious circle. The harder we work to raise more funds so we can do more than offer a painless end to animals whose owners can't afford their treatment costs the larger our annual income becomes.

This might sound very silly and obvious, but the "viciousness" comes in when potential volunteers and people who need help from us start to imagine that the RSPCA is so wealthy we could afford virtually anything. On the one hand potential volunteers and donors often feel they'd rather support smaller organisations who "really need" their help, even though they may be handling only a fraction of the numbers of animals that we do. On the other hand, the reaction when they hear we've turned down a request for help is very often: "If the RSPCA say they won't pay for X because they haven't enough money, I'm never going to give them another penny!"

It's significant that hardly any of the local veterinary surgery staff are RSPCA members and that conversations with them often leave me feeling that they think I'm being mean when I don't agree to pay the full cost of patients' treatment up front with no discussion.

Emergency treatment costs

I've taken four requests for help today on the branch emergency contact number. Three of these related to animals who were already registered at our clinic, which means that they are eligible to be seen by the vets who provide our subsidised out of hours cover. The fourth was a dog who'd never been seen at our clinic, so had to go to a commercial vet.

I keep banging on about registering with our clinic before an emergency happens if you are on a very low income (defined as being in receipt of state benefits, including working tax credit). The costs involved in getting these four animals treated show just why this is such an issue for us.

Two of the registered dogs had gastric problems, involving the owners in a £30 out of hours surcharge, plus the cost of drugs. One had a nasty wound which required surgery, at an all in cost to the owner of £200 (a struggle if you are on benefit, but not impossible).

The dog who went to the commercial vet had a similar wound which cost us £200 simply to get him seen and given antibiotics and pain relief and will probably cost another £200 (which the owner will be expected to pay) when he goes to the next available session at our own clinic.

If the commercial vet had stitched the wound we would be looking at about another £600, which simply is not a realistic proposition for us to pay.

It's all very well to say: "In that case, you ought to be running a subsidised out of hours service that will treat animals who haven't been pre-registered," because that would cost money we don't have, just as much as providing unlimited help via private vets does. (Because our service provider would charge us more for an unrestricted service).

Simple arithmetic demonstrates what I mean. The RSPCA overall gets roughly a million calls each year, which are either dealt with centrally or forwarded to the relevant branch. The National RSPCA's income is roughly £100 million and the combined branch income no more than another £50 million, making around £150 million available each year for everything we do.

Divide that £150 million by a million and you get an average of £150 available to deal with each call and you can see why we need to keep praying that a reasonable percentage of them won't need anything more than some advice.

Shop for textbooks and raise money for our animal welfare work

Do you have any clothes from the 60s, 70s or 80s (or earlier) that no longer fit?

Clothes and accessories that were new then are very fashionable again, and are a valuable source of funds for our work. We can also sell related items such as packets of nylons, dress-making patterns, sewing sets, cookery books and leaflets that might not immediately occur to you as useful donations to a charity shop.

Ornaments, pictures, crockery etc. etc. will also sell well, and the reproduction pictures that were popular in the 60s are fashionable too.

If you would like to drop off donations by car at the 61 Burleigh st shop, please phone ahead (01223 312 802) for directions to the unloading area behind us on Paradise street and to make sure someone is available to open the back door.

61 Burleigh St., Cambridge is open Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays), 188 Mill road, Cambridge Monday-Saturday (closed Sunday) and 156 High Street, Newmarket Monday-Saturday (closed Sunday).

Holiday boarding and your pets' veterinary records

Had a nasty experience a couple of weeks ago (much worse for the owner of the dog concerned) which was really no-one's fault but could have been mitigated by preparation.

One of the clients who use our clinic was given the opportunity of a holiday away as a present from a relative. The relative also arranged, and paid for her dogs to be boarded at a commercial kennels. The kennels took notes of their normal vet (our clinic) and checked that their vaccinations were current, but didn't keep the vaccination cards or photocopy them.

Unfortunately, just before the end of their holiday, one of the dogs was taken violently ill and needed emergency treatment. Because of being outside normal hours he had to go via our emergency route, which normally requires the owner to show either their clinic registration card or their clinic vaccination card, neither of which the kennels had. The difficulty was compounded by the fact that the kennels knew the dogs by the surname of the relative who paid for their boarding, while of course all their medical records were under their owner's name.

The emergency service isn't owned by the RSPCA; we pay them a fee to cover out of hours treatment of animals who are registered at the Cambridge clinic, so they wouldn't normally see animals with (apparently) no computer entry and no registration cards. In the event, the kennels managed to contact the owner by phone and it was sorted out, but the worry must pretty much have ruined her holiday.

In these days, when out of hours cover is often provided by a different surgery from the one your pet normally visits, this sort of problem potentially might apply to anyone - the only added complication in this case was whether the dog was eligible to use care that we subsidise. If you're planning on leaving your pets in kennels, check with your vet and with the kennels what would happen if one of them was suddenly taken ill. Make sure the kennels know what name the animals are registered under at your vet, and check payment options (e.g. will the kennels pay and claim it back from you or will your vet invoice you?). If possible leave a mobile number on which you can be contacted (and if needed make a credit card payment for your pet's treatment.)

RSPCA Bookshop 188 Mill Road

Bookshop at 188 Mill Road re-opening with great offers for students

20% discount on production of student card. Lots of books and also great posters and prints to cheer up your room.

Thank-You!

To the Friends of Histon Recreation Ground who collected £43.18 for us at their dog show. Much appreciated.

Bookshop at 188 Mill Road

This is a bit of an experiment. The bookshop is now taking "want" requests for books, so if you're looking for a favourite out of print author (or simply a cheaper 2nd hand copy of an expensive text), fill in the details to let us know and we'll keep an eye out for it as new donated stock comes in.

The permanent location for the form will be at www.rspcabookshop.co.uk/wantlist.html

Where our funds come from

Where the money goes

Branch photo mugs now available

£5 per mug. Available from our shop at 61 Burleigh Street now and shortly at 156 High Street, Newmarket and 188 Mill Road, Cambridge. These are a trial fundraiser and if they sell we'll have more printed with different photos of animals rescued by the branch

Bookshop closed for a week

Our 2nd hand bookshop at 188 Mill Road will be closed for a week from Monday 14th September for stock reorganisation. Re-opening Monday 21st September.

Volunteers wanted for Jumble Sales

Now that the Cambridge shops are fully up and running we are looking for volunteers to help us run a monthly jumble sale for items that are saleable but not good enough to go out in the shops. These will probably be held at Mill Road Baptist church, which is just a short way from our shop at 188 Mill road so there will be no need to use a vehicle to move the sales items.

We need:

• Someone willing to act as co-ordinator and deal with putting out posters, booking the hall, making sure enough people are available to staff the sales stalls and generally make sure that the burden of organisation doesn't fall on the busy shop staff.
• Strong people willing to carry stuff from 188 to the hall.
• Strong-minded people to staff the tables (jumble sales are vicious events!)

If you might be able to help, please email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk

Fantastic Saturday for E61

Andrew and his team of volunteers have worked like trojans this week and Saturday was their best result yet. We can now be confident that the branch investment in E61 is going to pay off in terms of providing a reliable regular income stream to fund our animal welfare work.

As we took on the lease towards the end of one of the three monthly rent periods, a full three month's rent falls due at the end of one month's trading, so money will be tight until October, because we don't want to draw on the Co-Op bond fixed-term investment and lose interest. After that, provided we can keep building on this wonderful start, we will have enough secure income to fund our animal clinic and boarding of rescued animals.

THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible, particularly to Andrew, Fiona, Wayne, Sharon and Ed. (and to all Claire's children who cheerfully gave up their Sunday morning to help move tons of "stuff" out of the basement at 188).

Rabbits!

Caroline who runs the Rabbit Residence has sent out an urgent appeal for homes as she needs to reduce her numbers to a more manageable level. Caroline works full time as a care assistant and runs the Residence in her spare time, so she really needs to get a speedy turnaround of bunnies who are fit and don't need special care, in order to be able to concentrate on the ones who need nursing. She also needs to keep rabbit numbers within the limits specified by Rabbit Residence's planning permission.

To view most of the rabbits now available for adoption from Rabbit Residence, go to the Rabbit Rehome website.

Animal welfare statistics for August

Not a brilliant month for rehoming as so many people are away on holiday, so only 3 cats, one dog and a guinea-pig placed, although several animals are reserved and should go out in September.

24 dogs, 25 cats and 2 rabbits were neutered and veterinary treatment was given to 270 dogs 151 cats and 26 rabbits. Treatments for the month were 90 animals up on August last year, possibly because of the credit situation, but more likely because of the general increase in the cost of treatment at private vets.

The case of the cat dumped in a box

I'm still wondering whether this was a bizarre practical joke or what.

At about 12.30 am on Saturday morning I had a call from the duty nurse at the Vet School to say they'd been phoned by someone with an injured cat claiming to have been told to contact them by the RSPCA National Control Centre.

This was odd in itself, because the University out of hours emergency number isn't available to members of the public; normally someone who found an un-owned injured cat would be told to take the cat to the nearest available private vet and that the RSPCA would pick up the cost of emergency first aid. The owner of an animal already registered with our clinic would have the branch mobile contact number on their registration card and is supposed to phone that, not the NCC nor the Vet School.

Neither the nurse nor I were at our best and brightest after being woken at that time of night, but we agreed that I should phone the cat's finder and the NCC to try to find exactly what was going on and how badly injured the cat was. If the owner wasn't known, there wasn't any way to find out whether the cat herself was registered with the clinic, so she'd have to go to a private vet in any case if she was in too much of a bad way to wait until the regular session on Saturday morning.

After midnight the surcharge on vet's fees goes up to £140 round here, so I was not a happy bunny. I phoned the caller first and established that he'd found the cat tied up in a cardboard box beside the road. He'd decided to call the RSPCA because she was limping and not interested in food or drink and was calling all the time, but she didn't really sound to me as though she was in such a desperate state as to justify spending the cost of a minor operation to get her seen immediately rather than in 8 hours time. I tried to explain this to the caller, who clearly wasn't happy about it, but left him with a promise that I'd contact the NCC again on his behalf and definitely arrange for the cat to see a vet even if not right now this minute.

Meanwhile the cat really was kicking up a racket in the background - sounding in fact suspiciously as if she was "calling" as in "on heat" rather than because she was hurt. Assuming the story about finding her in a box wasn't a leg-pull, being in season could explain why she was dumped if someone couldn't or wouldn't pay to get her spayed.

Phoned NCC as I was beginning to be suspicious that the cat finder had actually called some other organisation who were aware that the Vet School provide the inpatient care for our clinic and that was how he'd come to get their number. They didn't have any record of a call from the finder's address that night and confirmed to me that they would definitely have passed a call about a cat being dumped in this way to an inspector (an offence has clearly been committed) even if they'd advised the caller that they wouldn't be able to arrange for someone to pick the cat up before daylight.

I then phoned the finder back to see if he could confine the cat until morning so that one of us could take her to the clinic, only to discover she'd jumped out of the box, escaped out the front door, jumped the garden fence and legged it into the darkness. I suspect the final upshot will be a phone call a couple of months down the line about a stray cat having kittens in someone's garden.

1st Saturday at Emporium 61

Emporium 61 on its first Saturday's trading. It will look more "RSPCA-like" once we've got planning permission for the permanent sign to replace the rather weedy temporary one and finished the displays inside.

Until we've recruited more volunteers and a deputy manager, opening times will be:

Monday: closed

Tuesday: 10.30 — 5.30

Wednesday: 11.30 — 6.30

Thursday: 10.30 — 5.30

Friday: 10.30 — 5.30

Saturday: 10.30 — 5.30

Sunday: 12 — 4.00

Andrew and his team have now got the back room into shape and would be delighted to receive incoming donations. If you need to drop off something by car, please phone the shop on 01223 312 802 and they will arrange for you to unload at the back of the shop (from Paradise street). Good bric-à-brac, ornaments etc. are all very welcome as well as clothes.

Please, please DO NOT use dog flea treatments on cats

Ten minutes to midnight and wide awake after taking a call from the emergency 24 hour vet who has a client with no money whose cat is having seizures after being treated with over the counter flea powder intended for dogs. Treatment costs are likely to amount to several hundred pounds, all from an attempt to save the £10-20 it would have cost to get a safe and effective anti-flea preparation from a veterinary pharmacy.

The video below is from the Vetstoria site and gives more information about permethrin insecticide poisoning in cats.

Stray cats again: MICROCHIP!

Some of the most difficult situations we face happen because we don't have any way to find out the medical history of animals brought in because they appear ill or injured. Obvious traffic accidents are relatively straightforward, but it is much more difficult where the animal found is ill rather than injured. Even apparent injuries may not be what they seem, as it is possible for a bleeding tumour to appear like a partially healed and infected wound.

These are the other side of the debate about euthanasia; if you trawl the web you will find lots of people accusing the RSPCA of putting down animals who might have been saved, but very little discussion of the potential for suffering if we wait too long.

Nowadays, many vets don't have their own facilities for keeping inpatients over weekends and it is difficult and expensive to keep a terminally sick animal brought to us on a Friday for a reasonable length of time to give their owner a chance to locate them. If an animal has obviously hopeless injuries such as a broken back, there's no doubt that euthanasia is the right decision; the cases that keep us awake at night are the ones that might have a long-term condition that's normally controlled by medication.

My own cat, Fern, is a perfect example of what might have happened if she hadn't been chipped. She is epileptic, but her seizures are well controlled so long as she has tablets morning and evening. A couple of years ago, she wandered off and, after two weeks without medication, she was continually fitting. She was very fortunate that someone saw her and took her straight to a vet, who was able to scan her chip, identify where she lives and what medication she needs.

If we're asked to help a stray having fits with no knowledge of any previous history or way to find their owner, then the prospect is much more bleak. Seizures are a symptom that can be caused by a variety of things, some treatable, some hopeless, and it's difficult for a vet to make a sensible treatment plan even without the problem of providing long-term hospitalization if that's what's needed. (If an animal with an owner has a fit at least the vet will usually know whether the animal ever had one before and how old it is).

If you have a cat or a dog with a long-term health problem, please treat this as an urgent reason to get them chipped.

Some pics from the preview evening

The carrier bags were actually hand-printed by some of the volunteers to a design by Andrew, our shop manager.

 

 

 

 

Opening date for Emporium 61

Emporium 61: our new charity shop at 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge CB1 1DJ will open for business at 10.30 am on Friday 21st August. We hope you will think it has been worth the wait.

E61 will focus on high-quality vintage/retro fashion, kitsch, collectibles and accessories. A veritable Aladdin's cave.

Raising funds and awareness for the RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch.

The phone number for the shop is 01223 312 802.

View Larger Map

Our bookshop at 188 Mill road will continue to improve its offerings of second-hand and antiquarian books, prints and music now that more of its storage space is available to dedicate to shelving.

If you live closer to Newmarket, why not visit our wonderful shop at 156 the High Street.

Very nearly there...

The map below shows how to get to our new charity shop: "Emporium 61". Burleigh street is pedestrianised, but there's ample parking in the Grafton Centre car park if you're coming from outside Cambridge.

If you're planning to drop off donated items and need to unload from a car, you need to go to the unloading area in Paradise Street which runs parallel to Burleigh Street. If you're using a satnav device that uses postcodes, entering CB1 1DR should get you into Paradise street. At the moment we are still fitting out the shop, so it would be very helpful if you could wait another couple of weeks before bringing your donations.

We will be announcing the definite opening date very soon now...

View RSPCA E61 in a larger map

Building bridges with other charities?

There's a discussion on Petstreet about one member's experiences after winning a day shadowing an RSPCA Inspector. Also, see her fuller diary of the day. It's very interesting to see how we appear from "outside", in particular how difficult it is for other people to understand how the RSPCA's somewhat chaotic structure grew as the result of the decisions of local branches over a timespan of more than a century.

In our case we have a clinic, but no animal home purely because the branch committee of 50 years ago identified a welfare need for low cost pet care and negotiated a deal with Cambridge University to get cut-price treatments in return of use of the clinic for training new vets.

In the case of Stubbington Ark in Hampshire, the branch committee presumably decided they wanted a shelter and raised funds for one. HQ animal homes tend to be more strategically placed in that HQ will realise that there´s a problem with finding placements for animals in a particular region and build a home to fill that need.

Cambridge branch uses a combination of care at private boarding kennels, fostering by individuals and transfers to Block Fen which is our closest HQ funded shelter. The advantage of using private kennels is that (if we have the money!) we can increase the number of available spaces "overnight" rather than having a building with fixed limits. The disadvantage is that private kennels are not usually geared towards rehabilitating animals with behaviour problems etc.

Where there's a long-established HQ run home there is a tendency for the local branch to wither away because all the public interest — donations, volunteers etc. — tends to come to the home rather than the branch. In the long run that tends to mean that the branch can't afford to supplement the places provided by the home with fostering or spaces in boarding kennels. I suspect that having an active branch also improves relationships with other charities because they're more likely to meet us day to day. I certainly don´t get the degree of antagonism the Maidstone inspector seemed to find and we regularly come to arrangements with the local ferret rescue, Cats Protection, Blue Cross etc. if we have facilities & they don't or vice versa.

I´m afraid at the end it does come down to money. We've never yet been in a position where we were telling our inspectors to put down healthy animals, but a year ago we were very close to the point where we'd have had to. This is why it's so vital that we make a success of our new shop.

Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters

Filling the Ark by Leslie Irvine is a thoughtful discussion by one of the "new wave" of animal advocates. The author is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder and also a volunteer with her local humane society who took part in the efforts to save pet animals following the devastion caused by Hurricane Katrina. She documents the huge suffering and loss of life which took place in livestock and research animal facilities and which received very little media coverage and argues that we should be pressing for effective risk reduction efforts for these animals. Intensively farmed animals are often much more vulnerable in emergency situations than dogs, cats or horses because they are closely confined and unable to make any efforts to save themselves. Leslie Irvine argues that emergency preparation should be part of welfare standards for farm assurance schemes for food production animals and of animal care and use standards for animals used in scientific research. This is an important book which should be on the shelves of anyone involved in campaigning for improved conditions for animals.

Incidentally, anyone interested can view the emergency preparedness sections which are part of the Freedom Food welfare standards.

Rejoicing over shop slightly premature

As we weren't allowed to transfer the initial rent payment at the same time as paying the rent deposit and paying for the fixtures & fittings, I'd rather hoped we would be able to pay the landlord by cheque, which is a straightforward process that can be done by post.

Sadly, like everything involved in the never-ending Burleigh Street Shop saga, that would be too easy, so Kit and Janine will be turning up in person to initiate the payment at the branch of Cambs. Building Society which opens on Sundays.

With any luck this will be the absolutely final step before we can get the keys and we will be able to make a start on cleaning and decorating next week.

The banner above is Andrew's absolutely inspired design for the shop frontage. Note that the phone number is only a dummy as we've not got a line installed yet.

If you are interested in volunteering to help with setting up the shop, please ask Andrew or Ffiona at 188 Mill Road. If you would like to drop off donated goods by car there is vehicle access and a parking space at the back of the shop from Paradise street, but for the moment, please still take donations intended for 61 Burleigh street to 188 Mill road as we'd like to do a thorough clean before moving in any stock.

View Larger Map

Careers working with animals

This is something we're often asked about, and the truthful answer is that most animal-related work is fairly poorly paid and there is a lot of competition for the available posts. There is now a government-sponsored website: CAVE (Courses in Animal and Veterinary Education) which has been developed as a resource to offer information about courses and careers related to working with animals. If you are thinking of a career working with animals, the section of case studies where a variety of individuals tell their own stories about what their careers really involve may help you to make up your mind.

Rescue Me: My Life with the Battersea Dogs

Rescue Me: by Melissa Wareham is an inside account of working at Battersea Dogs Home. It's extremely readable, and also a very useful explanation of many aspects of animal rescue work which can lead to friction with members of the public. The prospective adopter who was "turned down" after regaling staff with the disaster of her dog owning history (dogs variously lost, confiscated by police etc.). The elderly gentleman with slightly sub-standard housekeeping skills but endless devotion to his dogs who was accepted with open arms. The offended couple who really couldn't in conscience be allowed a Battersea dog because both were at work all day. All of these will be familiar to anyone who has been involved in rehoming dogs, and Melissa Wareham explains why dog rescue organisations make the decisions they do.

Battersea is possibly the only completely open-access rescue centre in England and they manage to combine this with a strict policy that they do not put down dogs unless hopelessly ill, injured or dangerous.

Harry Potter Books at 188 Mill Road

Heffers books generously donated a stock of Harry Potter books to us when they closed their old shop in the Grafton Centre. If you've seen the film and now want to buy the book, why not support us at the same time? If you don't live in Cambridge, you can also buy online.

Update on new charity shop - FINALLY!

Claire and I signed the last batch of papers yesterday and Kit transferred the payment over to our solicitors' account so it really looks as though light is finally appearing at the end of the tunnel. The last-minute hitch turns on our potential liability for the rent increase which would have been paid by the people selling the lease during 2008 if the landlord hadn't delayed reviewing the rent until the year end.

It seems crazy, but February 2008 was the review date specified in the terms of the lease, so the tenants are liable to pay the increase for the whole period even though the landlord didn't set the new rent until nearly a year later. If we don't ensure that arrangements have been made before we finally complete the lease purchase we could become liable to pay it.

Fortunately our solicitors seem to be confident that the sellers will lodge the payment with their solicitors without more delay because they're wasting money paying rent all the time that nothing is progressing and they must be as anxious to see an end as we are.

We're now very tentatively thinking of 21st August as the target opening date, and starting to order equipment. The basement at 188 is full-to-bursting with wonderful donated stock, so as soon as we have the keys it will be a frenzy of activity.

The shop will need lots of volunteers to give it a good clean before we can start setting up. If you could spare a few hours in the next month, please email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk

Missing Cat

Last seen Tuesday 7th July.

Intact male, Wears a blue collar and red name tag, answers to the name of Dexter and is very vocal. Went missing from Moor Close area of Little Shelford.

Please if you have any information as to his whereabouts or have seen him please call the number below. He is much loved and much missed.

Any information, please email Lorna webbl@rsc.org

Please sign the petition for effective regulation of greyhound racing

We believe that large numbers of racing greyhounds are suffering every year because of a lack of effective regulation. Now we have the chance to protect them for the whole of their lives. But that chance expires in just a few days, on 22nd July.

The RSPCA has set the target to get at least 20,000 people to send a letter to the government by 22nd July to push them to introduce special legislation for racing greyhounds under the Animal Welfare Act. After that, the consultation period closes for good.

Take Action Now and visit www.giveanimalsavoice.org.uk/greyhounds

If we lose the race, so do greyhounds.

Every year at least 10,000 greyhounds are retired from racing. The fate of many of these greyhounds is unknown and huge numbers simply 'disappear'.

Show the Government that people care about greyhounds.

We need the Government to know that the public is unhappy about the uncertainty around racing greyhounds.

We need them to know that thousands of people support legislation that will protect each and every racing greyhound, by law, from cradle to grave.

And we need to let them know by 22nd July so that we don't miss our chance. Please sign the campaign letter now, then forward this email on to other animal lovers so we can reach as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

Visit www.giveanimalsavoice.org.uk/greyhounds to join the most important greyhound race
of all.

It's the one they can't afford to lose.

Stall at "Summer in the City" Big Weekend

Sat 11 Jul Sun 12 Jul 2009 12 pm - 6pm

Parkers Piece, Cambridge (map)

We'll be having a second-hand book stall on Parkers Piece as part of Cambridge's "Big Weekend"
Please look out for us. Lots of bargains! We also need volunteer helpers. Email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk if you might be able to help for a few hours. We particularly need drivers to ferry books from our shop to Parkers Piece and strong people to help with setting up and clearing the stall.

Missing dog

Waiting their turn at the clinic on Saturday

Very busy Saturday (which was why Nicola ended up waiting so long with Neville.) The pic shows Izzy the lurcher, back in for a re-check of the surgery on her neck. She's lucky to be alive as her jugular vein was punctured when another dog attacked her (hence dramatic pink bandages round her throat). Nice to see her looking so well now.

Stray cats again

Neville's a perfect example of why a rule that we should try to treat sick stray cats for at least seven days before giving up is worth having even if most of them aren't claimed by their owners. He was taken to the vets in Soham late Tuesday last week, at which point he was very thin, vomited any food he was offered, and was dehydrated. They examined him and thought he was probably a very old, hyperthyroid cat whose kidneys were failing. Over the Wednesday he got worse and stopped showing any interest in food. They tested him for kidney failure and for hyperthyroidism and FIV/FeLV, none of which came back positive, but it really didn't look as if he was going to "do".

We didn't have a volunteer driver available to transfer him to the RSPCA clinic on Thursday, so I asked them to put him on a drip to try to keep him going until Saturday - the next available clinic session.

Over the Thursday he perked up, started eating and keeping it down, and by Saturday (after poor Nicola had queued for nearly 3 hours with him), the University vet's opinion was that he'd almost certainly been trapped somewhere without food or water (which would cause the dehydration and vomiting because his gut couldn't cope with suddenly being fed again). The irritating thing about this was that he probably didn't need to be seen at the clinic at all & it would have been a lot simpler for Nicola to take him straight to the kennels - but there you are.

I've now got him at home, eating six meals a day until he's back to normal weight.

He's probably only three or four years old, and the moral of this story is that, if we'd been very pressed for funds, it wouldn't have been unreasonable for us to put down a very elderly, very sick stray, and even if we'd asked to wait the seven days, the vet might have decided to save our money by not recommending a drip.

When they're treating owned animals, vets are working with some knowledge of an animal's previous history; at least a vague idea of actual age and anything unusual that led up to the illness. The strays we take in have to be treated "blind" with nothing but the visible signs.

If you live in Soham and lost a black cat with a white star on his chest several weeks ago, Neville may be your cat.

Lessons Learned

Firstly I should stress that the following are my own thoughts about the distressing case of Luna, reported to the RSPCA as an injured stray and subsequently put to sleep because there was no available holding accommodation for her. I am sure HQ will be holding their own review and seeing what changes should/can be made.

On policy:

1. The current policy that we will not normally remove healthy adult stray cats from their current location needs to be re-affirmed.
2. We need to clarify that cats who are reported to be sick or injured, but are found on capture to be perfectly well will be returned to their original location.
3. The 7 day holding period for sick or injured stray animals who are not homeable, but don't need immediate euthanasia on welfare grounds needs to be added to the branch Minimum Animal Welfare Standards and made mandatory.

On practical issues:

1. We need to recruit more foster carers as a cost-effective way of increasing holding spaces for animals.
2. We need to plan what can be done in a situation where no kennel or foster space is available or the animal is not suitable to go to a foster home. This will cost money. Usually the only solution at weekends would be to transfer the animal to the veterinary surgery which is providing 24 hour cover for the district. Reasonably enough they will charge a substantial amount if an animal has to take up an expensive emergency care place.

Education

1. Microchip identification is not perfect, but the more we can encourage, the better the chance that a cat picked up as an injured stray will be reunited speedily with her owners. It's particularly important to chip cats who have some disability or condition which makes them likely to be reported as sick or injured (for example a permanently stiff leg following an injury).
2. Educate the public that a cat in good body condition, with no obvious injuries or illness, who is "hanging around" is normally perfectly capable of returning home without help.
3. Educate vets that we're not simply "putting off the decision" if we ask for an obviously terminally ill stray to be held the full 7 days so long as it can be kept pain-free.
4. Educate branch members and volunteers that when they signed up to the RSPCA they effectively signed up to an open-ended responsibility for animals collected by ACOs.

The most practically problematic of these is likely to be number 2 of the first group. Legally we probably can't insist that a cat removed from a particular garden is returned there if the owner of the garden refuses permission. Returning as close as possible to the original site is probably the best that can be guaranteed, so once an animal has been collected it's probably safer held until claimed by an owner if it can't be returned to the exact site.

Number 4 of the last group is a real consideration. The RSPCA is an extremely complex organisation dealing with issues that would take several inch-thick manuals to describe properly. Normal people don't, won't and can't assimilate anything like this before they join up as helpers and this does mean that quite a lot of the time they're being asked to do something and really don't know why — or at least not why it's their responsibility when they're already doing as much as they're comfortable with and they're genuinely short of funds.

The money aspect is a genuine consideration. Money spent keeping an unhomeable cat for 7 days is money that's not available to help with another animal's veterinary treatment.

Further thought

I think we should ban the phrase, "he'll find his way home" when we're talking to the public about cats they want to report as strays, because it implies that the cat is lost and has to search for home. I don't have to find my way home from the shops — I know the route, and so does the average cat who's visiting a garden a few doors down.

Stray cats II

RSPCA HQ have now put up a statement about the Mirror article, and the story behind what happened seems to be much as I suspected. Evidently the cat was originally reported as a sick animal whose owner wasn't known. I've been on the receiving end of calls like this, and there can be an awful lot of pressure to remove an animal, and insistence that it is in terrible pain. Once you've caught the cat, if the owner of the land where it was found is adamant that it mustn't be put back you are in a bind.

99 times out of 100 there's no problem and the cat is placed in kennels or a foster home and either rehomed or claimed by the owner. If the cat is unhomeable, most of the time it's at least possible to hold him/her for a reasonable length of time to give the owner a chance to come forward.

Until comparatively recently vets would normally be asked to hold the cat for at least 7 days if no kennel space was available. Now, most veterinary surgeries outsource their out of hours emergency cover to specialist 24hr centres and all their own staff go home overnight and at weekends. Some of them will stretch a point and get a nurse to come in briefly to feed and water weekend boarders, but most are unhappy about leaving animals unattended. That means they can't be used as a form of emergency space for holding animals. Kennels all have limits on their numbers set out as part of their licence conditions, so they can't "just squeeze in one more".

That leaves foster homes — and most of us would do our best to fit in one more cat in an emergency.

Do that too often, and you become part of the problem, not part of the solution. There's a numbers limit beyond which animals can't be kept in reasonably sanitary conditions, with parasites treated and veterinary appointments kept.

Update from our homing co-ordinator

Our cat numbers in kennels are now up to 21 and I've got various desperate messages from people wanting us to take cats and everywhere else seems full so it's quite a problem.

Clare (Inspector) phoned me about a 18 month old pomeranian that she got signed over as owner wasn't coping. It sounds as though it's destructive but I dont know much else. It should be very rehomable being small and a "breed" unless it has bad behavioural issues.

I agreed to take a rabbit from a home in Newmarket, again owners seriously not coping.

I had a call from someone who had 2 cats from us some time ago. One has since died and she adopted another from a different rescue. She has had an awful time. Her husband's been ill a while with a brain tumour so can't work and is now in a care home. They had to sell up their home to pay debts and now have to leave their rented accomodation as the landlord's moving into it having lost his main residence. She and the two kids are having to go to a hostel temporarily, which won't allow cats. She really didn't want to give them up but cant afford to pay boarding costs for ages. Bearing in mind that if they were given up for rehoming we would be obliged to at least take Ronnie back and we would possibly be stuck with him ages (he was a long stayer before she adopted him) I have agreed to have them with a view to her having them back when she gets a permanent home. Could be quite some time though!

Its a shame really as I was intending to take on a couple of oldies from the kennels but this will bung me up again!

Cambourne Youth Festival Fun Dog Show

June 27^th 2009

Categories:

1) Prettiest bitch (1-8 yrs)

2) Handsomest dog (1-8 yrs)

3) Golden Oldie (Males and females, 9 yrs +)

4) Cutest puppy (Males and females up to 1 yr old)

5) Childs best friend (Any age, any sex, handled by a child)

6) Best trick (Any dog!)

Entry fee per dog, per class, 50p or a tin of dog food. All proceeds to Cambridge and district branch of RSPCA. Prizes for winners.

Entry forms available on the day.

For further info/ class times, please pre-register at

cambournedogshow@hotmail.co.uk

Statistics for May 2009

During May, we rehomed six dogs, four cats and two budgies. We microchipped a total of 34 animals and neutered 24 (12 dogs, 9 cats and 3 rabbits). We provided low cost treatment at our clinic for 200 dogs, 113 cats, 15 rabbits and 6 miscellaneous animals and helped with the cost of treatment of 23 dogs, four cats and 2 miscellaneous animals at private vets. We tested three cats for FeLV because they were in high risk categories and of these two were positive and had to be put to sleep.

Stray cats again

Today's Mirror has a story which seems absolutely horrifying on the face of it. The National RSPCA's spokesman has simply stated that the Society is trying to find exactly what did happen, and they are clearly as gob-smacked as I am, because virtually everything that happened breaks normal policy on dealing with complaints about "stray" cats.

For the record, what would normally happen is as follows:

Caller phones in (sometimes direct to a branch or animal home, sometimes to the National Control Centre).

Caller: There's a stray cat in my garden and I want you to come out and pick it up.

RSPCA: Is the cat injured? Does it seem to be ill.

Then,

either:

Caller: Yes - I saw the poor thing hit by a car - one of its legs is hanging off.

(What's wrong obviously varies depending on circumstances)

RSPCA: Can you take the cat to a vet and we'll pay for treatment? That would be quickest. If you haven't got transport we can send someone out, but that may take a while.....

OR

Caller: No, but it's been hanging around for days and it needs rehoming.

RSPCA: Most cats like that do have a home and go back there when they're hungry. Don't encourage him by feeding him and he'll probably go home. If you're still worried, try putting on a paper collar asking the owner to phone you - or put up notices asking if anyone local's lost a cat.

Normally we're very resistant indeed to agreeing to pick up healthy, uninjured cats just because someone says they're stray - to the point where callers often get quite annoyed about it. It wouldn't normally be treated as a priority (because the animal isn't in distress) so it would be very surprising for an inspector to be diverted to collect the cat in the short length of time described in the article.

Of course micro-chipping would make this kind of event much less likely (although still not impossible if a cat is very difficult to handle in order to scan for a chip).

In any situation it's always possible that some individual may make a completely unreasonable and wrong decision or be over-persuaded by a caller who is totally convinced they're in the right. Possibly the explanation is that this cat was injured and the real argument is over whether the injuries were treatable or not.