The Vital Work Of Animal Rescue and Welfare Organisations

RSPCA is the logo of The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity that I really admire. The dedication of the front-line staff is an example of what can be achieved by people who are self-less and compassionate.


Reported animal cruelty incidents rose by a staggering 25% in the UK in 2008. The specific reasons for this are many and varied however all of these instances are born out of a fundamental lack of respect and empathy for another life. UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports that much of the cruelty is down to a belief that animals are seen as 'fashion accessories' or commodities that make an image statement about the owner. Animals are even suffering because of the 'junk food' fixation of their owners who feed their animals the same unhealthy food consumed by their unthinking carers.

Its only in the past few years that I have been close to pets and animals. Apart from having several goldfish and one hamster as I kid, I've never really had to take on full responsibility for a pet. Now that's the key word responsibility! Owning a pet as many of us understand comes with obligations and commitments. My partner Sallemange had grown up with pets is one of the most animal loving and caring people on the planet. When we first met a while back we got two Siamese Oriental cats called Willy Swizzle and Harvey Wallbanger and just six weeks we got Grace a wonderful black labrador

Living with our pets has really brought it home to me just how individual their characters are and just how wrong the idea is that they are just 'dumb animals'. I know its easy to run away with the idea and project human characteristics onto animals and despite that it is self evident to me that they experience emotions such as fear, anxiety, joy, happiness, worry, security and so on.

Because of that I have great difficulty in comprehending how people can be cruel to animals. Can't they see the physical and mental pain they are suffering? These people clearly lack any form of emotional intelligence and if they behaved towards other human beings in the way they behaved to animals they would be categorised as 'sociopathic' is there such a word as 'Faunapathic'? If there isn't you read it here first. It refers to the human mental disorder which results in a complete inability to relate to the feelings of animals.

The RSPCA looks after animal welfare in England and Wales. Scotland has its own association the SPCA

In the United States the animal welfare organisation is the ASPCA Founded in 1866 its founder Henry Bergh said the association was "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States." This lens donates royalty payments to the ASPCA

What follows below is a look into the world of the RSPCA and the wonderful work it does.