Hot hot hot!

We're all loving the gorgeous sunshine the country is currently basking in. But the RSPCA urging pet owners to make sure their four-legged friends do not frazzle in the heat after it has seen a huge rise in the numbers of calls about animals left in hot environments.

Between 1 and 26 April, the RSPCA received calls about 968 dogs and 281 other animals trapped in either hot cars, buildings or even gardens without shade.  This compared to 610 dogs and 81 other animals in 2010.

With the record temperatures over the Easter weekend and forecasts of more sunny weather to come, we're reminding dog owners not to leave their pets in cars, conservatories or caravans while they enjoy the sunshine.

All too often, owners make the mistake of thinking that it is sufficient to leave a bowl of water or a window open for their pet but this is not enough to protect your pet from heatstroke, which can have fatal consequences. 

Our message is: ‘Dogs die in hot cars. Don’t leave your dog alone in a car.’

As an example, the temperature inside a vehicle can soar to 47 degrees within 60 minutes when the outside temperature is 22 degrees.  Even in lower temperatures, if it is sunny or slightly warm outside, a vehicle can become hot very quickly.

Other dangers are:

Cloud cover can disappear quickly.

All dogs will suffer, but some dogs are more prone to heatstroke. For example, dogs that are old, young, short nosed, long-haired, overweight or heavily muscled are more at risk, as well as dogs with certain diseases.

Temperatures in air conditioned cars can reach the same temperature as outside within just five minutes of the air conditioning being turned off.

The most obvious sign of heat stroke in dogs is excessive panting and profuse salivation. Other signs include:

Overly red or purple gums

A rapid pulse

Lack of co-ordination, reluctance or inability to rise after collapsing, seizures, vomiting or diarrhoea

Coma or death in extreme instances

Owners who fear their dog may be suffering from heat stroke should act with great urgency. Pets should be moved to a cooler spot straight away before ringing your vet for advice immediately.

Douse your dog with cool (not cold) water. You could put your dog in a shower and run cool water over him/her, spray your dog with cool water and place him/her in the breeze of a fan. Never cool your dog so much that he/she begins to shiver

Let your dog drink small amounts of cool water

Continue to douse your dog with cool water until his/her breathing starts to settle and then take him/her straight to the veterinary surgery

And don't forget your sun cream too!

Helping the silent sufferers of domestic abuse

After five months of planning, preparing and planning some more, the day had arrived! Yesterday saw the launch of the PetRetreat nationwide appeal for fosterers.

RSPCA PetRetreat fosters animals belonging to people fleeing domestic violence.

All too often, women and men find themselves trapped in abusive relationships and feel unable to leave through fear of what may happen to their pets if they are left behind. Quite understandably, temporary accommodation and refuges tend to not allow pets.

PetRetreat looks after these special animals, who may have been victims of abuse themselves, until they can be reunited with their owners in a new safe and secure home.

Over the years since PetRetreat was launched in 2002, dedicated staff at PetRetreat have heard some harrowing tales. Take Petra, the loyal family dog, who had to have her leg amputated when it was left so badly damaged after being repeatedly abused by someone’s partner. Another lady who asked for our help said her dog used to put himself between her violent partner and their children to try and protect them.

This year has seen a record number of people asking for PetRetreat’s help with more than 100 calls being handled every week. On lots of occasions, people would like us to care for more than one animal so we have to try and find foster homes for hundreds of cats and dogs every month. But, this has become an almost impossible feat with a network of only 80 fosterers throughout England and Wales – only one being over the Welsh border.

So, after all the preparation, the media appeal for fosterers was launched on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning. The scheme was given wonderful publicity and it got our phone lines ringing. By Midday, nearly 400 people had applied which was an overwhelming response.

I can only say thank you to everyone who came forward wanting to make a difference to lives of people suffering domestic violence. With your help, we can help to stop them from living in fear and provide a new lease of life for their pets who are the silent sufferers of such tragic situations.

If you think you could open your heart and home and foster an animal through PetRetreat, call 0300 123 8000 or log onto www.rspca.org.uk/petretreat

Elephants Never Forget

The press has been awash with stories of Anne the elephant this week after covert filming by Animal Defenders International captured footage of her being badly treated by staff at the circus she has called home for several years. The shocking footage touched the hearts of many and I choked back tears when viewing it myself.

Organisations such as the RSPCA sprung into action to do anything that they could to help. We are thrilled that Anne's owner has now agreed that she can be rehomed to a place where she can spend her retirement feeling safe and secure. The team at Longleat Safari Park have agreed to welcome Anne to their venue so she can recieve the veterinary treatment she so desperately needs and her condition can be properly
assessed.

The team involved are going to be moving Anne as soon as it is possible to do so whilst minimising any stress and protecting her welfare and safety. I can't wait to see her happy and healthy in a new home.

The RSPCA has been campaigning for a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses for the past ten years under the Animal Welfare Act.

Wild elephants lead dynamic, socially-complex lives governed by their relationships with family members and the demands of finding and eating huge quantities of vegetation. By contrast, circus elephants’ emotional lives are sterile and their activity restricted by chains and pens except for when required to perform tricks which place unnatural strains on their joints and bodies.
The government is due to make an announcement in the next month or so and we hope this evidence will show that only a ban on wild animals can prevent such acts from happening again. If you feel as strongly about this as we do, you can also play a part by lobbying your MP to ask Defra to bring in a ban. For further information log onto http://www.politicalanimal.org.uk/area/westminster/wild-animals-in-circuses

Looking forward to Shrove Tuesday!

Ohhh this is my favourite time of the year! The mornings are getting lighter, the sun is shining (at the moment it is anyway!) and the daffodils are just starting to poke through the ground.

So with Spring just around the corner, that can mean only one thing – Pancake Day!

Here at the RSPCA, we’re urging people not to forget about animals when they are mixing up the batter.

The unpalatable truth is that many of the eggs available to make our pancakes come from hens that have lived out their lives in wire cages.

The good news is that latest figures from Defra show more people than ever are choosing higher welfare eggs. In fact, for the first time the UK is producing 50 per cent of eggs from cage-free systems!

However, this does mean that half of all UK eggs still come from hens kept in cruel battery cages, where the usable space for each bird (in barren as well as so-called ‘enriched’ battery cages) is less than the size of a piece of A4 paper.

That’s about 17 million hens kept in cages, unable to move around or move away from each other freely or express other natural behaviour properly.
Whether you decide to have yours with lemon and sugar, chocolate spread or syrup, please think about the hens too and make your pancake a higher welfare one.

Oh, and check out some great recipe ideas for Pancake Day and beyond here - http://bit.ly/dTULRp

Or to find out more about laying hens, log onto http://bit.ly/aCuyqu

Bon Appétit!! xx

RSPCA Needs You!

RSPCA centres throughout England and Wales are searching for its volunteer stars of the future to help out with a surprising array of tasks.

RSPCA branches in towns from Kingston to Kidderminster are looking for people to help keep the shops, branches and rehoming centres running smoothly.

It’s not all dog walking and cat cuddling as the positions available include fundraising, website design, customer service and having a say in key decisions as a branch trustee.

As millions of people struggle to find work as the impact of the economic crisis continues, volunteering could help to increase skills and boost the chances of securing paid employment.

It could also benefit school leavers or recent graduates when applying for jobs by giving them that all-important work experience.

RSPCA head of branch and animal centre support Rhoda Hatton said:  “The RSPCA relies on good-natured members of the public to devote their free time to helping us out. We would love to hear from anyone who thinks they can lend a helping hand – you may be surprised at just what you could get involved with.”

You can dedicate as little or as much time as you like to helping out a local branch.

Experience is not necessary for many of the tasks on offer, so whatever your forte in life, there should be something for you.

These are just some of the branches would love to hear from new volunteers for the following roles:

·         RSPCA Darlington & district branch – branch trustees, a website designer and fundraisers.

·         RSPCA Cambridgeshire Mid East branch – fundraisers.

·         RSPCA Lincolnshire North East branch – fundraisers, shop staff, co-ordinators for fundraising, volunteering and publicity.

·         RSPCA Brecknock & District branch - trustees, fundraisers and home visitors.

·         RSPCA Montgomeryshire & Radnor branch – trustees.

·         RSPCA Richmond, Twickenham & Barnes branch – fundraisers, co-ordinators for events and fundraising.

·         RSPCA Plymouth & South West Devon branch – Shop volunteers, fundraisers and home visitors.

·         RSPCA Hillingdon, Slough, Windsor, Kingston & District branch – Shop volunteers, fosterers and fundraisers especially for RSPCA week which runs from 2-8 May.

·         RSPCA Newbury & District branch – Fundraisers, Home visitors, fosterers and shop volunteers.

·         Kidderminster and District branch – fundraisers and shop assistants.

·         Peterborough and District branch – Fundraisers and committee members.

If you think you could dedicate some time to helping the RSPCA, please call our enquiries team on 0300 1234 555, log onto www.rspca.org.uk or contact your local branch to find out if you can help.

Gorgeous Gonsal

After a week out and about meeting and greeting some new faces, I am back in the office. And what a week it was. On Thursday, I had a wonderful time at Gonsal Farm in Shropshire. I caught up with our horse rehoming officer and we came up with some new and exciting plans (watch this space!).

The equine facilities at the centre are amazing – lovely stables, plenty of outside space to train and rehabilitate the horses and, most importantly of all, staff who really are dedicated to the welfare of the animals in their care.

I managed to spend some time with the centre’s current residents.  One particular favourite was a one-year Gelent who first came to the centre last May when he was only a matter of hours old. Staff think he was deserted by other horses. He was hand-reared at the centre and despite growing into a lovely young pony, he’s still waiting for a new home. I had heard about Gelent’s story within my first few weeks at the RSPCA press office so I was sad to hear that he is still without a forever home. But hopefully, his new owners are just around the corner.

It’s no secret that I am a huge cat lover so I just had to pay a visit to Gonsal’s cattery.

It was packed with gorgeous cats waiting for loving new homes while playing in their lovely indoor and outdoor runs. One particular kitten caught my eye – he was around 7 months old and had come into RSPCA care through a cruelty case. The poor little mite had been kicked so hard that his back right leg was severely damaged and needed amputating. In addition, he had been born with six toes on each paw. Despite suffering such abuse at a young age, this little black kitten was surprisingly fond of people and spend a good while happily sitting in my arms. If it wasn’t for Maverick (the RSPCA rescue cat currently residing at my house) then I would have taken him home. I hope someone else falls for him just like I did and finds a place in their home for him.

I feel immensely proud to be part of the RSPCA and whenever I visit a centre, I find it really emotional to see all the animals that have come into our care because they have been neglected or abused. There’s never any excuse to treat an animal with anything other than kindness and compassion and it saddens me that so many people do not hold that belief. But, the RSPCA is working hard to drive the rates of cruelty down and make sure people who do abuse animals are suitably punished and making sure that they never own animals again. We can only hope that through education and awareness, all animals will be treated with the respect that they deserve.

If you would like to rehome an animal from Gonsal Farm, call 0300 123 0753 or email GonsalFarm@rspca.org.uk

Out and about!

I love spending time out of the office and getting to see the RSPCA in action. This week, I am travelling to Shrewsbury to meet the staff and four-legged residents of Gonsal Farm in the stunning Shropshire countryside.

The centre looks after dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and horses to name just a few and can have up to 150 animals in its care at any one time.

Most of the animals that come into the centre have been rescued from the horrors of neglect and bad treatment by their previous owners. The dedicated staff spend weeks – sometimes even months – preparing them for a new life and a second chance by rebuilding their trust and confidence around people.

Gonsal Farm was one of the RSPCA centres which looked after and helped to rehome horses rescued from Spindle Farm in Amersham. This was one of the biggest cases the RSPCA has ever been involved in when more than 100 horses, ponies and donkeys were rescued from horrific conditions. More information on this case is on our website - http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/horses/amershamappeal

The animals at Gonsal Farm are looking for someone to give them a new home. If you think you can help call 0300 123 0753 or email GonsalFarm@rspca.org.uk

It costs the RSPCA over £2,400 a day to run Gonsal Farm Animal Centre which is funded purely through donations by members of the public. If you think you can help, log onto http://www.rspca.org.uk/donate

Catch up with my blog next week to see how I got on at Gonsal!