My story at the hands of the sspca (scottish)

HELLO ANIMALMAD your sorry tale has similar with what happened to me i was in rabbit rescue (i got into this after doing cat rescue for many years and having 12 bunnies "dumped" on me who no one wanted,realising that there was a need to rescue i started doing this)I took in ex-breeder rabbits those poor souls who were going to be knocked on the head after being bred for many years and then no longer wanted/be useful to their owner,s some came to mee in very poor ehalth who i nursed better i never received any help financialy nor asked for it,nor would i report any former owner,s who gave me their sick rabbits i became friends with a local phsycho who i also tried to help but after she tried to take one of my bunnies away i had to sever the friendship she was well known for informing on those who dared to cross her and she duly reported me 2 inspectors came to my home and i showed them my rabbits,they were very aggressive and said that they were going to take them away (in this area they are PTS not even given a chance of being homed)I refused to sign them over so was arrested,cautioned and read my rights this was after they had forced their way into my house by shoving me against a wall and holding me forcibley while they gave entry to the police who they had summoned i was left in the police car for 6 hours while they removed all of my beloved buns :xthis caused quite an stir with the neighbour,s as you can imagine having 4 vans and several police cars outside as they went about their eveil buisness eventually they "realeased me into my son,s custody" whatever that mean,s when i checked my rabbit,s shed i found that they had missed taking 2 buns luckily they had shut the door otherwise foxes would have killed them,the next day,after they had seen the vet the buns they had taken were all returned to me several had injuries and were covered in mess in the following two weeks 14died due to the stress that they had been put through and also enteritis I NEVER got an apology lucily my vet was wonderful and gave me a glowing report,he was furious with the treatment that i had received BUT i will never forgiv or forget the trauma they putt me through just for loving and trying to save unwanted rabbits
I doubt you will get anywhere with them though they just do not answer queries or letters,they are a very grey area

ShanX

Meant to add, the dog that was dumped was pts, they didn't think they would be able to home her because of her age!

If she had stayed with me she would still be here

I am absolutely appalled with what I have read online about the RSPCA, how can they call themselves an animal welfare charity!

My experience is of an owner of an animal welfare charity, one that actually took in older animals, gave animals a home when they couldn't be rehomed. Only ever put animals to sleep when they were suffering and nothing could be done. The difference is also that 95% of this charity was funded from my own money as donations were few and far between.

My case isn't in the papers, two years ago an SSPCA inspector visited my sanctuary, she was very agressive in her manner and clearly was not interested in what I had to say, she plagued me and eventually on her own steam without other inspectors or the police decided animals needed to be removed.

As you can imagine I was distraught, I also had two horses removed that had belonged to us for years. The SSPCA descended on me and took all the animals, coming in various vans and trailers etc, people could obviously see from the top of the country road what was happening, they were there all day and I was cautioned and interviewed.

Demeaning enough for someone who has never been in trouble in her life!

I was in a real state crying and being pressurized to sign the animals over (otherwise they would be left in kennels etc for years whilst the case came to court!)


I had friends that came and took me away and tried to mend the hurt, no-one that knew me and knew what I did believed this was happening. Anyway a few days later the SSPCA contacted me and I had a full day with my vet and their vet going through all the rest of the animals, nothing was found wrong!

Then I was out one day and came back and a dog had been dumped, funnily enough the SSPCA came that day within the hour, I had to go out so the dog had been put in a kennel with food and water for me to sort it out later, I had to go out and get stroke medication for a friend who was unable so it was important. Anyway back to the SSPCA they rang me and asked about the dog, I told them the circumstances and they didn't believe me and said it needed veterinary attention, so I came back to the sanctuary and had a proper look at the dog, yes she could do with seeing a vet on much closer inspection, so I said I would take her to my vets that day, they stated that wasn't acceptable and removed the dog. Well to cut a really long story short they came back and cautioned me and decided to prosecute yet again.

Due to the previous incident I was suffering from depression and stress already!

Anyway the case eventually came to court, after five full days of trial and all the prosecution witnesses my solicitor stated no case to answer on all the charges. There was a further legal trial and the judge agreed and the cases in their entirety were thrown out.

So here is what happened to me, I had a very good job which I worked from at home, extremely well paid with all the thrills, had been in the job for fifteen years, due to this my performance had dropped and I was made redundant because of this, I suffered from depression, stress, was frequently ill after being extremely healthy. Was gossiped about around the area by people that didn't know me etc etc.

I have closed the sanctuary although I do still help with rehoming animals when people contact me, and will take some but very few and far between, I have my own business now as well which I am trying to build up whilst working a part time job ( the only one I could find in the current climate) and have lost in total of 7 days hoidays due to court, and goodness knows how many sick days over the past two years.

They took two years of my life and a good income employment which I was intending to stay in until retirement (at least another 20 years. I am going back to see my solicitor this week to see where I stand as no-one should be able to get away with it.

I will also be writing a book about the experience, may take a while but I intend to do it, hopefully they might start thinking twice then about prosecuting people if they aren't sure. Perhaps training some of their officers to have a better attitude and help people instead of persecuting them.

By the way I heard many very interesting things in court about the SSPCA, much of which will back up the stories on the internet, I am absolutely appalled, because of what has happened to me my parents and their friends withdrew their support from the RSPCA, this was at the beginning before the court case, and that amounts to thousands in the year. I felt awful to start with as I thought animals would be losing out because of this, now I dont because of all the horrible things I have found out.