The RSPCA may be getting back to what it does best: animal welfare

The RSPCA over the last decade has – many would say – lost its way, bogged down in a mess of private prosecutions against honest members of the public instead of focusing on real animal welfare issues. But could the charity be about to do a U-turn? In an interview with the Telegraph their new chief executive, Jeremy Cooper, has admitted that the charity has become too political in recent years, accepting that they have ‘made mistakes in the past’, including over the badger cull and in its prosecution of hunts, and says it is ‘very unlikely’ that the charity will bring any private prosecutions against hunts in future.

If the RSPCA do change their tune, it can’t be anything but a good thing. While their political campaigning and refusal to accept their mistakes had, in the past, made for bad news stories, it had also affected their fundraising abilities, with donations from membership fees, legacies and gifts all falling.