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.