Charity Shop Campaign: 5.1 Understand the nature of a campaign. #2

RSPCA: Royal protection for the prevention of cruelty towards animals.

They have a range of different campaigns but there main aims are:

Ø      To stop people being cruel to animals –e.g. beating them etc.

Ø      Abandoning pets on the side of roads etc.

Ø      And to get people to adopt rescued animals so that they can have a good life.

Other campaigns:

Think Pig:

It’s about the 160 million pig’s bread for meat across Europe every year. They believe that many of these pigs are living in poor and uneatable conditions. They say: ‘If you’re partial to a bacon butty, bangers and mash or a pork roast on a Sunday, then we’re urging you to ‘Think Pig’ when out shopping and make sure what you put in your shopping basket is a vote for better pig welfare.’

The reasons for this campaign are:

Ø      Pigs are highly intelligent creatures.

Ø      They are being caused unnecessary pain in a life that will end in death.

Ø      They have to sleep on base slate floors.

Ø      Poor conditions can increase the chance of tail biting between pigs due to stress.

Ø      Living a life of boredom with nothing to occupy their intuitive minds. 

Chickens:

Over 800 million chickens are breed in the UK for meat alone every year. The RSPCA believes that the quality of life is unacceptable. They are trying to get the EU to make laws clearer labeling of well breed chickens so that people know what they are buying across Europe and to get caterers more involved in using well breed chickens.

Facts about chicken’s quality of life:

Ø      80% of chickens have less space than an A4 sheet of paper.

Ø      Some can only live for around 35 days.

Ø      This can cause heart disease in chickens and other diseases.

Ø      There are kept mainly in the dark.

Ø      There not allowed to sleep for too long.

Ø      They are encouraged to eat more so they grow more quickly.

Ø      They receive ‘Hock Burns’ leg sores caused by wood shavings on the floor. They also cause Ammonia.

They ask people to support them by:

Ø      To check the labels in supermarkets and make sure that they go for organic as it’s the best quality of life for a chicken. Or Freedom foods (although this is not as good).

Since Jamie Olive and Hugh Fearnly-Whitingstalls campaign a few years ago it is shown now that less and less people are buying the cheap chicken and option for more expensive freedom foods as they are conscious of what they eat.

Puppy Trafficking:

It’s when puppies are breed in large numbers for a profit, with the breeders caring little about their welfare. Often puppies will become sick and some may die.

In 2006 some offers did an experiment and brought 6 puppies that had been trafficked. Two were found to have potentially fatal illnesses. That’s a third! Out of the two dogs one died of his illness despite vets doing all that they could to save him.

In 1999 the government brought in laws about Puppy Trafficking. Limiting the number of dogs you could breed with and the number of litters she could have. In Ireland Laws are slightly more relax so many pet shop owner may be buying the Puppies in. You also have to have a license if you are going to sell puppies on a large scale to the general public and they have to be checked by a vet.

They would like to bring in more laws to strictly control breeding and importing pets from abroad. Also to get police etc to enforce these stronger.

They are trying to raise awareness so that the public only buy puppies that they know where to buy them from properly and show that they don’t buy dogs that could have fatal illnesses or cost them alto of money to save.

Facts about Puppy Trafficking:

Ø      They are taken away shortly after birth.

Ø      Many don’t know their mothers.

Ø      They will not be vaccinated against diseases.

Ø      They don’t get the proper nutrients they need.

Ø      They will often be underweight.

Ø      They often have nothing but food and their own waste to play with.

Ø      Some will be sold for animal testing.

On the website there is also a film about this issue. It highlights important key facts.

 They also advice people how to spot puppy traffickers and poorly breed puppies:

Ø      You should see a puppy with their Mother and father; if not the father the breeder should be able to show you a picture of them. If not then be suspicious.

Ø      Get as much background about the puppy as possible.  And beware if the dog comes from outside the UK.

Ø      Ask to see the vaccination card. If the vets details are not on the card or are outside the UK the card could be fake.

Back Off Badgers:

The government this year announced that this year they were going to in certain areas have a badger cull because of a link between badgers with TB and cattle becoming infected with it. Although there is a vaccine that has be administered mainly in Wales the RSPCA are hoping that the Government will reconsider until they get the results from Wales.

Ø      Bovine TB is a strain of tuberculosis (a bacterial disease usually affecting the lungs)

Ø      Bovine TB can infect a wide range of animals including cattle and badgers

Ø      Prior to the pasteurization of milk and the testing and slaughter of infected cattle, bovine TB was an important source of TB in humans. However, control measures now mean that the current risk to human health is considered negligible

Ø      Although bovine TB is serious in cattle if it fully develops, it is very rare to see clinical symptoms in the UK because infected animals are identified through testing and culled long before they show any

Ø      The disease, and efforts to control it, have serious economic implications for farmers and government

Ø      According to Defra, in 2006-7 cattle testing and surveillance in England cost about £44 million and £24.5 million was paid in compensation to farmers for cattle compulsorily slaughtered

Ø      According to the Welsh Assembly Government, in 2006-7 spending on TB compensation and associated costs (e.g. haulage and slaughter) totaled just under £11.7 million

Ø      The RSPCA recognizes that bovine TB in cattle causes massive hardship for farmers whose herds are affected and that there needs to be a sustainable and humane solution

Ø      Over 92% of herds in Great Britain are free of TB, according to the Animal Health 2006 Report of the Chief Veterinary Officer 

Reviewing the EU Lab Laws:

They want the EU to review the laws of animal testing made over 20 years prior. They think that it’s cruel although this will help new drugs. We use rodents to test new drugs for toxin levels so that there shouldn’t be any side affects when humans are tested. Although this isn’t total effective all the time. A few years ago a drug was being tested and burnt off the patients fingers. One man had to re-learn how to walk after having skin grafted on to the souls of his feet again.

They believe that they should consider:

Ø      The necessity and justification for using animals is always critically reviewed.

Ø       Every possible step is taken to reduce the numbers of animals that are used and to significantly reduce their suffering and improve their welfare.

Ø       More is done to speed up the development of humane alternatives

They lobbied for:

Ø      Extension of the law to cover all research which may cause animals to suffer.

Ø       That each country should have a clearly defined and effective system of authorization, control and inspection of animal use.

Ø       That an ethical evaluation which critically assesses the likely harms to the animals involved (taking into account the whole lifetime experience) against the proposed ‘benefits’ of the experiments, must be part of the authorization process.

Facts:

Ø      Over 68,000 people signed our petition calling on the UK Government to work towards ending the use of animals in experiments, replacing them with humane alternatives, and to support the RSPCA position with regard to the new European laws.

Ø      Around 1300 establishments (including universities, pharmaceutical and chemicals companies) use a total of 12 million animals in experiments each year across the EU.

Hunting Act:

In 2005 there was a ban on hunting with dogs. But now there are threats that it could be overturned as the new coalition Government has promised to give MP’s free Reign on this subject. Before dogs where being breed for fox hunting only this meant that they were a threat to people and couldn’t be kept once they became too old.  Today people use drag hunting instead of traditional fox- This is when meat or something with a strong sent is dragged through a particular area and the dogs have to find it first.

Ø      In a survey 75% of the general public didn’t want the ban to be over turned.

The main messages are that animals in the UK need to be better protected. The target audience of the are adults  because of all the technical terms and animal lovers because it would interest them.
Methods to reach them are posters, websites, leaflets, Tv ad etc.
There is a very High sucess rate as it is one of the bigest known charitys in the UK.