Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
NOW we know. H is not who we expected. From having watched no episodes at all of Line of Duty, I’ve watched them all in a few days (I’ve been ill). I could now go on Mastermind with AC-12 as my specialist subject. But it seems to me there are parallels between police series such as Line of Duty and animal rescue.
Firstly, many who are concerned about animal welfare are, like the police, engaged in surveillance. This may be ordinary everyday surveillance such as looking out for animals in need when we are out and about but, for a few, it also means covert surveillance.
One organisation who has, in the past, engaged in undercover investigations is Animal Equality. As the result of one such operation, they have been in the news this week.
They have just published video footage of extreme suffering on a pig farm which sends pigs to an abattoir supplying well-known retailers. Atrocities exposed included piglets killed by being hammered to death or swung against a concrete floor.
As the result of their surveillance, they hope perpetrators of this cruelty will meet “the full force of the law”. You can see the video at animalequality.org.uk.
Of course, those guilty of criminal activity need to receive appropriate punishment. For animals, there was good news on this front, this week. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act that we recently talked about (Gazette March 31) became law on April 29. This means the maximum penalty for certain animal cruelty offences has, at last, increased from six months to five years. As Ted Hastings from Line of Duty would say, “Now we’re cooking with gas”.
Important to both police dramas and animal welfare is having a solid knowledge base about what is lawful and how things should be done.
To help pet owners get things right, Mayhew has recently launched an Advice Hub where pet owners can find information on a variety of topics relating to pet care. Look the hub up at themayhew.org.
Finally, police dramas usually end with a cliffhanger. There’s plenty of cliffhangers in animal rescue. Just ask animals in trouble who were only saved just in time and those, like the unwanted piglets, who weren’t.
In police dramas, the cliffhanger may involve an officer needing immediate assistance. A “status zero”. Animals too, can need immediate assistance. That’s why it can be useful to have emergency numbers ready in our phone. For starters, the RSPCA number for urgent help is 0300 1234 999.