The future of the RSPCA

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner writes: Four years ago, when we faced the prospect of an extended battle with the RSPCA with more than a little trepidation, the current state of the Society would have been unthinkable. This week the Charity Commission announced that it had instructed the charity to carry out an independent review of its governance following the resignation of two trustees and its inability to recruit a Chief Executive for two years. This came hot on the heels of the announcement of wide ranging reforms in response to a previous review of its prosecution operation. Amongst other things those changes included a new policy not to bring prosecutions against farmers or hunts.

Back in 2012 all this was unthinkable, but for us there was little choice about locking horns with one of Britain's largest, best funded and most respected charities. After decades of flirting with animal rights extremism the Society's council, which is elected by a dwindling number of members, had finally taken the plunge and chosen a new Chief Executive who almost immediately declared war on large parts of the rural community. Farmers involved in the badger cull were to be "named and shamed", the Grand National banned and, of course, foxhunters, especially those with the wrong accents, hounded out of existence.

The subsequent arguments over policy, politics and prosecutions have been widely reported and the RSPCA subjected to extraordinary criticism. There are, of course, a few extremists who continue to support, a more radical and aggressive RSPCA, but if the last few years have proved anything it is that whilst the British public might be obsessed with animals, it also loathes extremism, bullying and hypocrisy.

Unfortunately the simplest and most obvious solution to its current situation is the one that the Society is the least willing to contemplate. It seems so obvious that the RSPCA's first step on the road to redemption should be to drop its 19th century private prosecution model in favour of a 21st relationship with the police, other statutory bodies such as local authorities and the CPS. Its Scottish sister organisation, the SSPCA, has managed to deliver its role in just such a way in a legal jurisdiction that makes private prosecution very difficult. There is absolutely no reason the RSPCA could not do the same south of the border.

Thus far, however, the Society has refused to contemplate this step, even going as far as excluding any discussion of its prosecuting role from the review of its prosecutions. Surely now, however, when the RSPCA is asking itself how to end the controversy and refocus on the vitally important role of protecting the welfare of animals, the obsession with being a quasi-statutory prosecuting authority must come under scrutiny. It is exactly that outdated prosecutions model that has brought the great institution that is the RSPCA to its knees.

Follow Tim on Twitter @CA_TimB