The #RSPCA is on the verge of damaging their brand's image in ways that may never be recovered, even in the British, short-term vision & collective, goldfish memory.
I was raised on Blue Peter appeals. They seemed to grip the nation when I was a kid - my imagination & awareness were broadened by campaigns for guide dogs, the suffering children of other countries & the prevention of cruelty to animals. The #RSPCA was always at the forefront of any care for abandoned animals, in particular.
However, just as Body Shop's impact on mainstream society became diluted due to imitations of its own, once revolutionary actions, so the #RSPCA eventually succeeded in getting its point over that a dog isn't just for Christmas.
The problem is that people have too much competing for their donations, and dog rescue & other costly activities don't grab the public's or the media's interests. This, in a scramble for relevance, the #RSPCA has committed 3,high profile violations of its own, long-established brand values.
1.Their reported £300k+ expenditure
on enforcing the fox hunting ban in court was considered by many to be a waste of valuable resources.
2.The #rspcaassured food industry standard appears to many anti-cruelty groups, particularly vegetarians, to sanction animal exploitation.
3.The latest "scandal" involving the #RSPCA involves them unjustly euthanizing a family cat, then attempting to prosecute the family, after concealing evidence.
All three of these cases suggest contradictory strategy by the UK charity & need to be rethought, before irreparable damage is done to their brand image.
1 comment:
Agree prof. We stopped contributing to the RSPCA when it became plain they had been taken over by political lefties who were using it as a platform to pursue the hunt, spending millions on lawyers As far as I know they are the only charity with powers to prosecute in this way without recourse to the CPS. I may be wrong here but in any case the zeal with which they go after the hunt is disproportionate whatever your views on hunting. I happen to believe it is more humane than shooting and only the weak foxes die but they die quick and not in a long drawn out starvation disease ridden way. This is not to say the motives are all fine and confined to the joys of the outdoor, I'm sure there are some cruel bastards out there that just enjoy the process of killing rather than supping a tot on the back of a nag with the risk of breaking a leg or worse. I've met one or two of the arrogant sods who don't give a shit about motorists and think they own the public highway and trample on land they're not supposed to but on the whole I'm neither for nor against in the way some fanatics are. Live and let live. I've made my views clear to the RSPCA who just don't seem to get it.Now it seems there are other issues cropping up now regarding misplaced priorities and inappropriate enforcement. It's a sad day when politics corrupts, by using and hiding behind the good intentions of the majority
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