The RSPCA have hit the headlines once again, after the story emerged of Claude, a cat in Tring, who was put down by the RSPCA (against his owners’ wishes) for – as the headlines have it – ‘having long hair’. Following the RSPCA’s decision to put down the cat, the charity then decided to prosecute the family for animal cruelty – a case which the CPS has now thrown out.
In February last year, Melissa Kite asked whether the RSPCA ‘thought it was the FBI’ after a stream of ‘lurid’ headlines which led to an investigation by the Charity Commission and a Commons Debate on the matter. But that wasn’t before, as Melissa put it:
‘dozens of ordinary householders have been convicted, fined and even tagged for offences such as killing squirrels in their gardens, or not arranging adequate veterinary care for a sick pet’.
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