RSPCA demands police powers
Charity in talks over gaining right to seize pets without intervention from officers
THE RSPCA is seeking police powers to allow hundreds of its inspectors to enter private property and seize pets,
The Daily Telegraph can disclose. The charity is in talks with police chiefs and the Government about new statutory powers to allow its agents to gain access to gardens, sheds and outhouses without a police officer.
MPS and campaign groups said they found the development appalling. One member said: “The RSPCA is a welfare charity not a private police force.”
The organisation is seeking the new powers despite a cross-party group of MPS publishing a report last November in which the RSPCA was accused of “targeting vulnerable, ill and elderly people and removing their pets”.
Last month Jeremy Cooper, the RSPCA’S chief executive, quit after a year in charge. That prompted the Charity Commission to say that the “governance of the RSPCA remains below that which we expect in a modern charity”.
Currently RSPCA inspectors who suspect a pet is in distress have to contact a local police officer and wait for them to arrive before they can enter private property to seize the animal.
But under the proposals, the charity’s 333 inspectors would be granted statutory powers to intervene without first asking a police officer to accompany them. This would allow its inspectors to enter gardens, sheds and outbuildings of private homes without police support to seize animals that they believe are suffering. The powers would not extend to access to homes at this stage – the inspectors would still have to ask police to apply for warrants from a judge – nor would they extend to allowing inspectors to arrest suspects.
The organisation said it was “also seeking the power to seize animals in distress” rather than have “to wait for the police and a vet, which could prolong an animal suffering”.
This would allow inspectors to seize pets in people’s homes – if invited in – without having to ask for a police officer to do it for them.
Daphne Harris, the charity’s chairman, told the RSPCA’S annual meeting last month that she wanted to “get statutory powers for our inspectors to help them rescue animals” by 2021.
Talks about the powers and any necessary safeguards are taking place between the RSPCA, the National Police Chiefs Council and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in London and the Welsh Government in Cardiff. If the talks fail to progress, the RSPCA is considering asking local councils to give its inspectors the statutory powers.
Sources said the charity was keen to avoid “a patchwork quilt where you might have a licence in Monmouthshire but not in Leicestershire”.
A source added: “We are in discussion with Defra about what it could mean and what a suitable timetable would be, and how we would be accountable.”
RSPCA sources said cuts to police budgets and councils meant forces were finding it harder to send out officers to attend animal cruelty cases. One source said: “The last thing police want
to do is to turn up to help with an animal welfare case. They are stretched to the limit.”
Countryside campaigners were concerned about the demand for statutory powers, which were recommended in a 2014 report into the RSPCA by Stephen Wooler, a former inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Tim Bonner, the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “You dress this up and it can mean only one thing: the RSPCA wants statutory powers of entry on to private property and intends to use its huge £140million annual budget in pursuit of those powers.
“The RSPCA’S council will undoubtedly pursue its political aim with zeal, and with money donated to improve the welfare of animals.”
Simon Hart, a Tory MP and former head of the countryside pressure group, said he would write to Michael Gove, the Environment secretary, to express his concerns.
He said: “The RSPCA is a welfare charity, not a private police force.”
A Defra spokesman said: “The UK has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. We meet regularly with the RSPCA to discuss the charity’s work. There are no plans to change its role.”
Last month the Charity Commission said the organisation faces “further regulatory action” which could include the imposition of new management unless it makes urgent changes to the way it is run.