Basil off to his new home

Excellent news for Basil the little terrier who was found with terrible injuries to his front legs some weeks ago. Not only has he made an almost complete recovery, but he has a beautiful new home for Christmas.

All the family members are adults, so Christmas is a fairly quiet occasion for them and there should be no problems settling Basil in during the festive season.

The rather large plastic collar is to stop Basil licking at the scab on his right leg and he should be able to do without it fairly soon.

Late Night Shopping

As an experiment, we're going to open our shop at 61 Burleigh Street for late night shopping every Wednesday from 5-8 pm until Christmas.

Crossed fingers for good results.

We have lots of beautiful RSPCA cards and calendars, as well as plenty of items that would make really unusual presents - anyone interested in an antique earthenware hot water bottle?

Or a limited edition print of a racing car signed by Damon Hill.

A glimpse into the canine underworld

We've been concerned about the large numbers of animals being advertised on "Gumtree" and similar sites for a long time, and a call I took over the weekend gave me a very nasty insight into what can happen.

The caller wanted to find out whether the RSPCA could prosecute a man who bought a dog from him, and had the dog put down as dangerous within a few days of the transaction. Of course this wouldn't be possible because it's not illegal to have a vet put an animal to sleep—it's illegal to cause an animal to suffer, but not to kill.

If all the details of the story are correct, it appears that the purchaser changed his mind about wanting the dog, and possibly expected to be able to get his money back in order to buy a puppy (also, incidentally of a "status" breed). The seller couldn't have taken the dog back as his original reason for selling was friction with an existing dog (although he seems to have several other dogs and I wonder whether he is also breeding). He does appear to have left the purchaser a contact number when he sold the dog and offered to try to help solve any problems.

Background details of the various dogs involved are complicated, but there appears to be a whole ecosystem of people breeding dogs at home. Their motivation is probably a combination of the attraction of "cash in hand" income and a fairly genuine interest in dogs as a hobby. I wonder how much of it is driven by a desire to find a substitute for meaningful work that they can take pride in and whether an improvement in the job market would make things better.

An awful lot of dogs seem to be traded around like so many packets of sugar, with not much common sense about the presence of small children, or suitable facilities. Against this background our messages about not getting animals you can't afford to care for probably aren't going to make very much of an impact. 

The people we're trying to persuade are being lectured all the time—don't drink so much, don't smoke, eat more fruit, lose weight ... it's not hard to see why they're not going to pay attention to us.

Pics from Mill Road Winter fair 2011

Ben (in the dog suit) got rather too hot, while poor Pat was frozen running the tombola outside the shop for most of the afternoon. Grand total raised was £354.91, £22.86 of this from  the collecting boxes, just over £50 from the tombola and the rest from shop sales.

It just goes to prove that this shop can make money if we can only persuade people to realise we are here and come in.

Many of the people who visited on Saturday said how impressed they were by the shop and the interesting books available and that they hadn't realised we had a shop here (this roughly ten years after we first opened!)

We need more volunteers so that we can open six days a week. If you might be interested, please call in on a Saturday, drop in at our larger shop at 61 Burleigh street, or email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

6 am this morning...

Yet another call from the purchaser of a new puppy that's now very ill. At six weeks old the pup is too young to leave the mother and the seller very obviously did not tell the truth when he said it had been wormed as pup is passing huge quantities of them as well as bloody diarrhoea.

The RSPCA has an online guide with useful tips about getting a puppy to help prospective adopters avoid some of the pitfalls.

Veterinary treatment again

Maddeningly it appears that people are still not paying attention to our plea that they get their animals registered at our clinic so that they will be eligible for low cost treatment outside normal clinic hours in an emergency. Combine this with the fact that others are still allowing animals to breed without considering what will happen if something goes wrong, and yet another group are buying young animals, and you have a nightmare situation.

To give some idea of what this means: on Monday we had a frantic call from someone whose new puppy was now vomiting repeatedly and becoming unresponsive. Nearly all her spare cash seems to have been spent buying the puppy and she had no idea that intravenous fluids at a private vet would cost around £200. On Sunday night we had a call from someone with a litter of kittens who'd accidentally knocked over a video-player on one of their siblings. Last Thursday evening someone who did know about the clinic called us as an emergency because his dog was very ill but he hadn't taken him to the normal clinic session because he didn't have any money. The previous week we had another instance of a person with a  giant dog so ill that she could not stand simply demanding that we should pay to get a vet out to her because she couldn't be got to the vet.

If we don't help, animals like these will go without any treatment, and it's not their fault their owners are so thoughtless.

If we do help, it risks simply perpetuating the problem of people with not enough to do acquiring animals they can't afford.

There's a separate problem that's almost a mirror-image of it. When we rehome animals, we do careful checks of the suitability of the home. In fact it's comparatively rare for us to turn homes down; it's more about trying to steer people towards suitable animals. However we do sometimes tell people they simply don't have suitable facilities and/or arrangements for what they'd do if the animal was ill or injured, and it's highly probable that some of those we refuse do go out and buy instead. When they do, we may well end up providing veterinary treatment for the purchased animal or, indeed, end up rehoming the animal if the purchasers really cannot cope.

In many ways, what we ought to be doing is trying to draw in more of the people who desperately want animal companionship, but don't have enough money or skills and involve them in working to provide a comprehensive support service.

Update
Sadly the puppy died two days later.

Animals In War Memorial on StreetView

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Spend at our shops and help keep animals in homes this Christmas

Reports of animals being abandoned or relinquished by owners who can't afford to care for them are coming in from all sides.

It seems that a toxic spiral is building up in which owners put off vaccination, spaying and neutering because of cost and then are faced with sick animals they can't afford to get treated, or with litters of unwanted babies they can't rehome.

Pumpkin, Little Owl and the three Shepherd cross puppies were all probably abandoned because they were ill and their owners were afraid of the cost of seeking treatment.

Some owners are so neglectful or so incompetent that  their animals are better off without them, but in the vast majority of cases it is far better to help animals to stay in their own homes than to spend funds keeping them in boarding kennels until they can be found new ones.  If animals are being relinquished because they are ill and the owner can't afford a vet, it's much more efficient to spend money on treatment than to spend money on treatment and boarding.

, 

Times are tough, and we all need to spend our money as efficiently as possible. Over the next months—probably years—there are going to be more demands on our ability to provide help with veterinary care than ever.

Can you help us by diverting some of the spending you would be doing anyway in the direction of our shops? Most of us are going to spend something on Christmas cards and presents in the next few weeks. By purchasing some of them from our charity shops you'll be helping to keep our welfare services in action.

In the Alice in Wonderland times in which we live, prices for rags are good—to the point where we have to keep a sharp eye on the bags we're hauling out to the rag collector's van or they get nicked! If you're having a clear-out, we can turn clothes and other textiles into useful funds even if they are too worn to sell in the shop. Don't throw them out; drop them off to us. 

Pumpkin's Progress

When she came in

Now

Hasn't she improved? The white, hairy mop is Marion's little Bichon, looking on.

Christmas is coming!

These are the pics from the Burleigh Street shop today.

Many thanks to Ben for providing superb publicity for our new Christmas display: all the children (and the grown-ups!) loved the dalmatian costume and it was a fantastic attraction to draw people in.

Ben will be visiting us again for the Mill Road Winter Fair on 3rd December, probably in a Border Collie costume this time—look out for him at our shop at 188 Mill Road.

These photos are a bit dark because I was taking them from inside the shop; I hope to get some better ones on the 3rd.

Christmas cards, Advent Calendars and 2012 calendars are now on sale at our shops, also lots of items that would make wonderful and unique presents.

Look out on Burleigh Street tomorrow!

Ben Pettit, who kindly collected for us at our dog show, is supporting us again this Saturday at our Burleigh Street charity shop. The picture below was taken at our dog show - those costumes are VERY HOT!

He'll probably be bringing the dalmatian costume this time and, depending on the weather, will either be in the shop welcoming customers inside, or walking up and down Burleigh street to drum up trade.

Watch out for Ben again at our Mill Road bookshop for the Winter Fair on 3rd December. Winter Fair collecting is usually very chilly, so Ben may be glad of his dog costume then.

Welfare assistance

The Wirral News reports that RSPCA Wirral and Chester branch is having to cut staff at its animal centre.

"THE RSPCA’s Animal Centre in Wallasey is making further cuts and asking staff to volunteer for redundancy as its financial struggles continue. 

Last November the charity’s Wirral and Chester branch closed its clinic in Birkenhead – which was running at a loss of £20,000 a year – after trustees decided to focus resources on its centre in Cross Lane. At the time the branch, which has been in existence for around 120 years, was said to have just a year’s worth of running costs in reserve. 

Now trustees have decided their only option is to reduce staffing costs and an animal welfare assistance scheme. From this week the scheme, which gives treatment for pets owned by people on low incomes, will be replaced by an emergency vet consultation. ... read more..."

Clearly the "newsworthy" aspect of this is the possible closing of the animal shelter and the effect on the branch welfare assistance scheme is glossed over in a way that suggests the reporter didn't understand that the branch previously offered help with the cost of treatment for pets of low income owners and now can only cover the cost of a consultation (meaning the owner must find the whole cost of the actual treatment). 

In many parts of the country RSPCA branches are the ONLY source of help available to people who can't afford to pay a private vet. In Cambridgeshire, our animal clinic is the only low-cost veterinary treatment centre for an area of 125 square miles, but in most cases a branch will support access to treatment by providing financial help for owners to use private vets. This is much more low-profile than having a facility of your own and something that's harder to publicise and fundraise for when times are tough.

Very few people allow their animals to starve—but I'm afraid quite large numbers of them simply do nothing about sick animals and justify it to themselves by saying they're not neglectful because they would take their animal to a vet if there was one whose charges they could afford.

Chaos!

Phone call yesterday evening from someone concerned that a neighbourhood cat seemed to be unable to stand. She very helpfully offered to transport him to a vet herself, rather than wait until an RSPCA driver could get there. Then, about an hour later, there was another call, this time from the vet's surgery, to say they had the cat and also a stray kitten who'd been handed in.

Sadly the adult cat didn't survive, but the kitten improved over night although she's very snuffly still and anaemic because she had so many fleas feeding on her blood.

Then began what you might think was a straightforward process of moving her for further treatment. Being so small, kittens can improve or go downhill very fast. Yesterday evening, the vets were doubtful whether she'd survive the night, but by mid-morning she was perky enough not to be really in need of inpatient care. Because of the snuffles, there was the added complication that vets don't really want a potential source of cross-infection to other ill patients unless it's absolutely unavoidable.

We don't usually end up calling round our foster homes while an animal is actually in a volunteer's car wondering where to go, but I'm afraid our new volunteer driver had some anxious moments wondering whether he was stuck permanently in transit with a sniffling kitten.

Thank you VERY much to our domestic bird fosterer for stepping in at about 5 minutes notice to provide a safe place with no animals likely to be susceptible to cat germs, and thank you to our wonderful volunteer driver for coping with something we don't normally land on new volunteers!

It does show how essential our volunteers are to making it possible to save animals, and also the importance of having as many individual foster homes as possible to minimise the risks of cross-infection.

If you might be interested in fostering animals for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

What a week!

We put out an appeal for help raising the final part of the £10,000 needed to safeguard the future of our animal clinic on Saturday. 

George the three-legged cat is looking for a  home

Thanks to the combined efforts of the Cambridge Evening News and Radio Cambridgeshire and the generosity of the public we've more than met our target, meaning we won't default on the agreed payment deadlines. Especial thanks to John Grieve and the staff of Cambridge Veterinary Group, who donated £3,000.

This doesn't mean our problems are over. We're now in a position to be certain we can pay the flat rate basic fee to keep the clinic open and that we will be able to carry on paying it in the next financial year.

We still have the awful dilemma of what we can do to help animals whose owners can't manage even the subsidised rates our clinic charges and animals who need emergency treatment outside normal hours but are not registered.

Fees for operations are paid direct to the University Vet School, who provide hospitalisation facilities for us. Charges are roughly a third of what the owner would have to pay at a private vet, but this may still represent an awful lot of money for someone who is on benefits of £70-odd pounds a week or already in debt.

Unless we can increase our fundraising really substantially, we dare not offer to provide extra help to cover the cost of operations because we can't justify putting the future of the clinic in doubt.

Our agreement with the Vet School means that registered animals can be seen outside normal working hours in an emergency, but animals who have never been to the clinic can't be seen and the only available treatment is at private vets. At the moment we will help in a real emergency that can't wait, but all we can do is to offer to cover the cost of a consultation — the owner must find the money to pay for first aid to stabilise the animal until they can go to the next clinic session. Again, we simply cannot do more than this, and we may have to say we can only cover part of the cost of a consult if fundraising dips again.

Many pet owners on low income seem terrifyingly unaware of how little help may be available if they can't afford to pay vet fees. Our clinic is the only one of its kind in the whole of Cambridgeshire, and the PDSA's arrangements with some private practices all require the owner to register before their pet becomes ill. Callers to our branch help line almost always say, "Can you tell me where to take him?" expecting that there will be free facilities in every town, and there just isn't. Getting this across to a frantic owner is incredibly stressful for the volunteers who run the helpline. Many vets will do their best to avoid putting down treatable animals, but at the end of the day they have to safeguard their businesses' viability or no-one's pets will get treatment.

I'm afraid no government is going to see pets' healthcare as something they are prepared to fund—if communities want their animal members to have treatment available they are going to have to organise and work to fundraise for it themselves.

This is why our shops are so vital, because the income they bring in is something we can increase by our own efforts. Please support them by using them when you shop for clothes; by donating saleable items and remembering to sign a gift aid form if you pay UK income tax.

We need more volunteers, to increase the rate at which we can process donated items and prepare them for sale, and to enable us to increase the shops' opening hours. If you might be able to help, please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or drop in at one of the shops for a chat with the manager.

New kitchen for Christmas?

These ex-display kitchen units were very kindly donated to our shop at 61 Burleigh Street by a local showroom and are for sale at £200 for the set of white units and £150 for the white and maple set.

Buyer collects. Very good condition except that they're a bit dusty after being in the showroom. They can be seen at the shop, but as you can see from these pictures they don't look exactly as they would when installed because we've had to stack them up so we can still sell other things.

We're just...

£3,546.85 below the target amount we need to raise to assure the future of our animal clinic now.

Thank-you to everyone who's worked so hard to get us this far.

Just one final push!

You can donate online by clicking the donate button at the side of this blog, or using your mobile, by texting PETS00 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to RSPCA Cambridge.


Sadly this won't mean we can stop and rest as we need to carry on fundraising as hard as we can to keep up with the daily calls for our services.


Please keep working on the ten point plan and support the hard work of our shop staff and volunteers in Newmarket and Cambridge.


With your help, WE CAN DO IT!


We've entered our clinic in the NatWest Communityforce grant bid. You can support us by going to http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/299 and voting for us. You need to register on the site to prevent multiple voting and you have three votes, so please also vote for two of the other RSPCA branches which are asking for help.

Animal Welfare Statistics for September

During September our clinic treated a total of 233 dogs, 110 cats, 12 rabbits and 3 miscellaneous "small furries".

It's pleasing to notice that half of the rabbit visits were for vaccinations (compared with about a third of all visits for dogs and cats), so perhaps the message about the absolutely vital need to vaccinate pet rabbits against myxomatosis is getting through. The number of rabbits is still low considering their status as the third most popular pet after dogs and cats, so I fear many are still being treated as "expendable" creatures not worth the expense of veterinary care.

We rehomed two dogs and four cats: a slow month and probably still reflecting many people's feeling that this is not the right time to take on more commitments.

Blog Action Day 2011 - RSPCA Big Sunday Lunch

Fancy inviting some animal-loving friends to a veggie lunch on Sunday 30th October?

Why not sign up for the RSPCA Big Sunday Lunch and use the opportunity to raise funds for your local branch or animal centre?

Complete the form in the attached frame to register. You can choose to fundraise for the National RSPCA, your local RSPCA branch, or a local RSPCA animal home, whichever your feel most needs your support.

Note from the Big Sunday Lunch Facebook page:

We expect there will be many different types of Big Sunday Lunches being made for this event so we just wanted to address the whole issue around vegetarianism and choosing higher welfare meat.

The Big Sunday Lunch is for everyone including those who are vegetarian, vegan and those who eat meat. We are very aware that many people who eat meat are regularly ‘sleep shopping’, that is, just buying any type of meat from the supermarket without realising the welfare issues that affect farm animals such as cows, pigs and chickens. We're trying to reach out to people have little or no awareness about these issues so they can make more of an informed choice when buying meat.

A recent survey by the Food Standards Agency in 2009 suggests that the percentage of the UK population that is vegetarian is less than 10 per cent. People choose from their own free will whether to eat meat or not. We're trying to get through to that 90% of the population who do, to encourage them to be more aware of what they are buying and to give them the knowledge to choose higher welfare options. That way we have the highest chance of making a significant difference for animal welfare.

Many people are confused about the labelling on packs of meat and just don’t realise the welfare issues facing farm animals. That is why we would always advocate choosing higher welfare meat which is an assurance that the animal lived a better standard of life.

Injured cat - urgent

Has anyone in the Mill Road area of Cambridge lost a smallish mostly tabby un-neutered male cat? He's been taken to Companion Care Vets on Barnwell road after a traffic accident and found to have a microchip, but it's a foreign one (believed registered in the Netherlands) so they can't trace the owner.

If he might be your cat please phone Companion Care. Their number is 01223 243535