More and more cats!

More and more requests coming in for us to take unwanted cats, as well as incoming injured strays. If you might be interested in fostering for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Most of the animals we place in foster accommodation are cats recuperating from injuries, kittens or puppies who need to be in a domestic environment for correct social development, or dogs who we think would benefit from training and assessment under home conditions.

Most of the adult cats need cage rest in order to facilitate healing of various injuries, so this might be a suitable option for someone who would like to have cats but cannot give them the run of the house.

This pic. gives some idea of the kind of pen we use for cage-resting injured cats

If a cat is having cage rest on veterinary instructions it is very important that the fosterer can resist the temptation to let  him/her out, because running or jumping may prevent a broken bone from healing, or even mean that it has to be operated on a second time to re-set it.

Snap!

RSPCA Manchester and Salford says almost exactly the same thing as my previous blog entry but from a different perspective:

"Each time I have to say 'no' to someone who has exhausted all options the guilt weighs heavy on my mind. The situation could be an unwanted pet, a stray cat, a stray cat having given birth outdoors, someone who can't pay a vet bill, someone who wants a lift to the vets, someone who wants me to collect an animal - the list is just exhaustive. Few understand that the resources of most animal charities are extremely limited. My role at the branch is complex but I'm basically the manager and I have a member of staff who oversees the care of the animals and a pt staff member who does the day-to-day care. That's it.

What we can achieve rarely feels even remotely adequate enough and it's only at times like learning how an adopted animal is doing in their new home that you feel there is some sense of purpose to your role.

No one goes into animal rescue & rehoming to turn animals in need away, to say 'no' to desperate pleas of help or to have to put animals to sleep is not what any of us want to be doing. But what most people do expect is for animal charities like the RSPCA (whether locally or nationally) to have the answers to everything and help every single animal in need."

I think "exhaustive" is a freudian slip on her part. 

Why don't people come to meetings?

RSPCA Clwyd and Colwyn wonders why it's so difficult to get branch members to attend their AGM or other meetings. It seems to me that it's the same underlying set of problems that make RSPCA week less successful than it might be, and which I blogged about last year.

1. Individuals may genuinely believe the RSPCA doesn't have a pressing need for their support because we have enormous numbers of other members.
2. Most branch committees are run by very few, over-worked individuals. This means the people organising anything are generally also trying to do other things. Volunteers and new members may get the impression that things are disorganised and badly-run, and they may feel unappreciated if we don't answer calls immediately or if they want to do specific things (like walking dogs) and we want them to do different (and more boring) things (like fundraising or taking part in business meetings).
3. There's a knock-on effect from (2) when people who think we're inefficient actually do volunteer to join in and are very enthusiastic but want to start changing things immediately. Because we're already operating very close to the edge of not coping, what we need is people who are willing to help with existing jobs, not make more work, even if their intentions are good.
4. There seems to be a fatal tendency for people who are really keen on helping animals to set up new groups rather than supporting existing ones, particularly if the local RSPCA isn't doing something that they think it ought to be.
5. And, partly as a knock-on effect from (4), there seems to be a general disenchantment with the kind of local democracy that the RSPCA embodies, which depends on groups of people working together with set rules and majority decisions. In many ways there's a frustrating sense that internally we've won all the battles that are being waged by activists in Australia and the US but we just can't recruit the ongoing practical support we need to keep up the momentum and eventually we're simply going to run ourselves into the ground. It's interesting to contrast the 2010 no-kill conference with the ICAWC conference organised by the Dogs Trust, or with the RSPCA's  Animal Welfare Conferences for members. The viewpoint of the no-kill conference is very much of activists looking in whereas we're inside running the services and trying to keep afloat. Inevitably we spend an awful lot of time worrying about finances, simply because we're on a treadmill of recurring bills (kenneling, vets, rates, rent...) and the need to keep generating income to pay them.

Part of the "No-Kill Equation"

RSPCA Bury and Oldham have a mobile vet clinic that provides low-cost vaccinations, health checks, worming, flea treatment, and micro-chipping within the community, but there's been a furious debate on Facebook about whether people who can't afford the full cost of treatment should be allowed pets. 

Brent at KC Dog Blog in the US has an extended rebuttal of this kind of attitude:

As an animal welfare community, we have somehow gotten in our minds that we need to try to punish people for not altering their pets -- and consider them 'not worthy' of pet ownership if they don't. So instead of taking the time to educate, and to be part of the community and being people who want to help, we become the people trying to take their pets away.

And if the animal welfare continues to create a divide between itself and various communities, we will fail. As Donna notes in the post: "To decrease euthanasia rates and curb irresponsible ownership, we need proactive, cost effective solutions to embrace the human-animal bond, rather than tear it down."

Sometimes animals do have to be taken away from owners who can't or won't care for them properly even with support. Most low-income pet owners are not like that; they do love their pets and want to do the right thing. However if you really are short of cash the temptation is always to put your head in the sand and hope your cat won't get pregnant before you can save up the money to get her spayed, or that your puppy won't catch anything nasty if she's not vaccinated. If we simply decree that these people shouldn't have pets we're removing a huge number of homes where unwanted pets could go and creating more homeless pets from those they already own.

Animals are always going to be relatively cheap to acquire, because two cats, dogs or rabbits can produce more of themselves at little or no cost unless something goes terribly wrong medically (at which point it becomes hideously expensive, but it is TOO LATE to lecture the owners about their shortcomings). Attempt to ban ordinary, good owners from keeping animals and they will simply hope not to get caught.

Veterinary support (with some strings and a requirement that the owner does contribute something towards the cost) are an essential element of an effective strategy to end killing of unwanted animals in shelters. 

Release locations needed for outdoor cats

Do you have a large garden or other land or stables where you would be prepared to have one or more outdoor cats? We periodically take in strays who have been living rough and are too shy of human beings to be easily placed in ordinary pet homes.

All cats would be blood-tested, neutered and vaccinated. You would need to have a building or shed where they could be confined for an initial settling-in period to avoid the risk that they would try to "home" back to their original location.

If you might be able to help in this way, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

How not to do a home-visit!

Ouch! (I should say at once that the facebook page discussed in the linked article does NOT belong to any RSPCA facility in Britain).

We do ask potential adopters for a letter from their landlord confirming that it's OK for them to have pets, but I hope we would go about it a little more tactfully than that and this is where training is key.

The Librarian has some very relevant wise words about why the staff and volunteers of any organisation should beware the temptation to bad-mouth their customers on social media. Animal rescue groups are no exception to this rule; animal adopters are our support base and we need to remember this even when we most feel: "the more I see of human beings, the more I like dogs."

Everyone who adopts an animal from our branch normally has a pre-adoption visit to check that their facilities are suitable for the pet they want and to try to ensure any snags are dealt with before they cause problems. (For example our home-visitors will give advice on whether the adopters' garden fence is able to contain the dog they've reserved.)

It's important that home-visitors don't get the idea that their job is to catch out people who are going to be cruel to animals; it can cause enormous difficulties if they take it upon themselves to do subsequent un-announced visits or otherwise give adopters the impression that they are being treated as suspects. Follow-up post-adoption visits should always be by pre-arrangement with the adopter — realistically what are they going to cover up as a result of having a few days notice?

The vast majority of people who come forward to adopt do it because they love animals and want to help and it does animal welfare no favours if we insult or patronise them because that means they'll be less likely to help us with other things, like fundraising, in the future. Some of them do need to be encouraged to accept that standards of pet care have moved on since they were children (we wouldn't home a single rabbit to live alone in a hutch, for example), and some need a gentle steer towards animals that are suitable for their circumstances (for example a large dog in a flat with no lift is going to be a big problem when he gets elderly and finds stairs difficult).

Home visitors are essentially a point of contact between the adopter and the branch, and post-homing visits should be an opportunity to solve any problems and ensure the placement is a success, not a threat that the animal will be taken away.

In reality our biggest problem is not abusive adopters, but lonely, needy ones who would ideally like to have their home visitor popping back every weekend to check the pet is OK and help with flea treatments, nail trimming etc.

We always need more volunteers to do home-visits, as it's important that the visit is done as soon as possible after an adopter has expressed interest. If you might be interested in training for this, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Missing Staffordshire Bull Terrier

Chaos

Chaos went missing from his home in Oxfordshire in March and his owners have been searching for him ever since. It's possible he might have been stolen and then dumped, so he could be virtually anywhere in the country. If you find a dog looking like him, please call 07769 185 413 / 07968 351 154 

We are rubbish at identifying pedigree cats!

Suzie — now

Suzie - just after he came in

"Suzie" was brought in to us because she was abandoned. She is in fact a neutered male (in our defence the initial mis-identification of his sex wasn't us; we are not completely incompetent).

We thought he was possibly a British Shorthair, but in fact he's a Selkirk Rex. The fact that he would originally have been purchased for quite a lot of money makes it even more peculiar that he would have been simply abandoned.





Still, lovely to see he's found a wonderful home, and at least now we know why his whiskers look so beaten up; they have a natural wave.

Pip, Ben, Toby and Duffy all looking for homes

Duffy

Toby

Ben

Pip

Although Pip and Ben look rather similar we've got no reason to think they are related. Toby is only 8 months old and was adopted from us by a family who were unexpectedly posted abroad and had to return him. Duffy is a GSD x Rottie cross and only a year old, but was passed between a number of people before ending up with us, so needs a home where she can be given TLC and consistent handling and training.

There's more detail about each of them on our rehoming gallery If you might be interested in adopting them, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

The stockroom at our charity shop

Thank-you, everyone who donated last week. Donations included this cute, but rather large, beanie baby(!) and an extremely realistic life-sized Old-English Sheepdog soft toy.

Don't forget our volunteers' evening is this Thursday evening at the 61 Burleigh street shop from 7.30-9.30.

Donated to our second hand bookshop

Catalogue of books printed in the fifteenth century now in the British Museum

The photo doesn't give much idea of how big the actual thing is—there are multiple volumes and each is huge. They're actually brownish rather than green, but I took the picture under fluorescent light and the colour of the photo is a bit odd.

Many thanks to the donor (who must have had quite a job getting it to the shop!).

Cats everywhere!

This year's been particularly bad for unwanted cats, partly because our funds are so low that we have to think very hard before taking any extra animals into our kennels and partly because it looks as though more owners are procrastinating about getting female kittens neutered until it's too late.

We need to recruit more foster carers so that we can avoid putting kittens into a cattery environment where they miss out on the important social learning they would get in a home environment. 

If you might be interested in fostering for us, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk 

We will cover expenses such as food, litter etc.

Slideshare presentation on volunteer recruitment and retention

From Adopt a Pet in the StatesVolunteering

Not quite what you'll find in most RSPCA branches because the majority of these are directly run by their management committee members, who are all volunteers themselves. However there are lots of tips we could use.

Calling these weasel words...

... would be an insult to weasels everywhere:

The Home Retail Group, of which Argos and Homebase are members, said it was committed to being a responsible retailer. A statement said: "The RSCPA has advised that it has no current recommendation for the size of a hutch for a single rabbit. In our autumn/winter catalogue we do make it clear that hutches should be used in conjunction with a run, we will be amending the website to that effect. We also offer a discount on a run if purchased in conjunction with selected rabbit hutches."

One reason why there is no official recommendation for the size of hutch for a single rabbit is that the RSPCA advises that rabbits should not be kept on their own!

How volunteers help stretch funding

If you use Battersea's income and rehoming figures as a base for making comparisions (One Battersea Unit)  something rather interesting emerges.

The RSPCA's overall animal rehoming is roughly 10 Battersea Units

On top of this we provide roughly half as many animal treatments as the PDSA

Total RSPCA income (including the branches) is roughly 10 Battersea Units and a bit more than half a PDSA unit.

So, on that basis, the rescue and law enforcement services of the Animal Welfare Officers and the education and campaigning activities are virtually thrown in free.

That rather knocks out the complaints that the RSPCA is spending money on prosecutions and campaigning instead of on practical welfare work.

If the branch volunteer network finally gave way under its workload and threw in the towel, I don't think funds could be stretched nearly as far as they are at present.

Wordle Word Cloud

VOLUNTEERS + RSPCA = ANIMALS getting veterinary TREATMENT and REHOMING

Trial Leaflet Drop

One of our neighbouring branches had success in recruiting shop volunteers (and publicising the shop to get more customers) by distributing leaflets to houses in the streets immediately adjacent to the shop. 

The reasoning behind this is that these are the people who would have the fewest practical difficulties getting to the shop to volunteer for a few hours, whereas someone who had a long bus journey or needed to find car parking, would have much more trouble just getting to the shop.

I put out about 150 leaflets on Sunday afternoon and it will be interesting to see what results we get (if any). Plain black and white laser-printed leaflets are very cheap to do (less than 2.5 p each), so if it's successful this may be the way to go to advertise our shops in a targeted way.

Volunteers will be needed for our Newmarket Charity Shop

We hope that the legal negotiations for the lease of our proposed new charity shop  at 10A Market Street in Newmarket are getting close to a satisfactory conclusion.

Once we have the lease we will need more volunteers as soon as possible, not just to help serve in the shop, but also to help with collecting and processing donated goods to get them ready for sale. Our aim is to at least triple the turnover we achieved at the old shop and that will mean an enormous amount of work for the helpers who sort donations; steam clean and price them and finally put them out on the sale racks.

If you live in the Newmarket area and would like to help, please email treasurer@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Deer!

If you see a very small deer, like the one here, in your garden or even walking down the street, it is probably not a baby, but an adult muntjac deer. Muntjac are quite common in Cambridge and, because they are so small, they can survive in habitats that wouldn't support larger grazing animals and they can get through quite tiny gaps. If a deer is actually on the road you can reduce the chance of it being hit by a car if you shoo it off to one side (although there is obviously a risk that you might be sending it off on the wrong side). As the deer are living and breeding in the city it's not desirable to consider catching them and moving them into the countryside.
(click the image to enlarge it) 

What goes around, comes around

Very frustrating day of phone calls. It kicked off with a call about a cat whose owner had got her via the Preloved website. I'm sure she took the cat on with the best of intentions, but the words: "I rescued her from someone who didn't want her and she was in a terrible state," always make my heart sink. Typically the rescuer initially assumes that all the animal needs is feeding up a bit and equally typically it turns out that the previous owner was probably getting rid of it because they couldn't afford the vet bills. (Incidentally the man who bred puppies from a "rescued" bitch in the Panorama program probably got her in this way rather than from a rescue charity).

Late morning produced someone who'd bought a rabbit from a pet shop a few weeks ago; found "a hole" in its leg a few days later and after several days of home remedies decided the rabbit was ill enough to need a vet. Of course by this time every local vet was closed except for the premium-rate out of hours service. From his description I think the rabbit had probably been fighting with un-neutered litter mates and the "hole" was caused by a bite abscess bursting. All I could suggest was that he should ask the pet shop to fund some of the cost of treatment and that he should contact the RSPCA National Control Centre in the hope that they might be able to put some pressure to bear on the shop.

Closed the shop at 5, cashed up and staggered home, then to the supermarket for some food to keep me going over Sunday, just in time to get the latest call while I was browsing the veg. aisle. Four 9 week old puppies, the result of an accidental mating, and all with diarrhoea. On the plus side the owner had got them registered at our clinic on Thursday, so I could put him through to our veterinary provider. Also (for a change!) the pups were cocker spaniels, not more staffys, so if they can get over their digestive problems they ought to find decent homes.

Preloved and Gumtree seem to be getting more and more of a problem in terms of encouraging people to get animals they can't really afford/cope with. It's not easy to see what the solution might be as in some ways it's a good thing if owners rehome unwanted pets themselves rather than expecting animal charities to take them.