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RSPCA Animal Holding Centres

Caz

Mama Doe
When I was at the rescue this weekend I was told about RSPCA animal holding centres.

Apparently they are large centres not open to the public where animals are kept before a suitable place in a rescue or rehoming centre can be found.

I had no idea these existed!

According to the peeps in rescue when they have spaces free they go to their nearest centre (there is one in Norfolk) and choose bunnies to take for rehoming. It is "like a sweet shop" in a horrible way as you can literally pick and choose what you fancy because there are so many.

They said if I didn't think any of the rabbits they had in at that time were suitable I could leave them a checklist and they would probably be able to find a rabbit to suit my needs pretty quickly.

What a sad statement on our society that a place like that exists! I have this awful vision (probably far from the truth) of animals stacked in pens and cages like in a warehouse or supermarket because of our "disposable" lives where we just discard something like a living creature when we have no more use for it.

On the plus side the people at the rescue have worked hard to raise the status of rabbits within the RSPCA and have been heavily involved in the new rabbit RSPCA leaflet soon to be available. They are also responsible for the design of decent sized rabbit pens available as modular set-ups for rescues and fosterers and these have been installed in several local RSPCA centres.

Since Sunday I just can't get my image of a holding centre out of my head :cry: !

Caz
 
Aww, I imagine/hope they're not quite like the image you have. It's probably just that it's cheaper to run things like that rather than have the extra staff to deal with adoptions available at every location. It makes things more work if you have to work around the public.

It's good that their are overflow facilities really, without them the animals that couldn't be housed at the centres would be pts :(

Tam
 
They are also the place where animals who are subject of an investigation go....... Before they are returned to the situation from which they were removed.......( :x :x :x :x )

Janex
 
Somone from the local RSPCA recently contacted me because she wants to sort the local rabbit problem out. Apparantly at the nearest rabbit holding centre the rabbits and guinea pigs are kept there for 7 days, if they are not claimed or homed in that time they are put to sleep :evil: I am starting to get animals from them more frequently now as they are trying to get them to me before they have a chance to be put to sleep. Its sad that it has taken this long for anything to be done about it though :cry:
 
I must be fairly lucky in my local area now the collection officers etc have been told to find homes and not pts, which usually means they end up here or if I have no space go to the local animal hospital until I do, It is frightning at how many rabbits are now unwanted
 
Several RSPCA Centres have signed up to RR recently, maybe that will help speed up their rehoming rate. Trouble is the small animals seem to not get as much attention as cats/dogs though that does seem to be gradually changing.

Tam
 
I know a few drivers who woud rather take any animals they pick up to any of the small independent rescues rather than take them to one of their own centres.

I find this all very sad when you know what the options are :cry:
 
I can help you with this image you have because I take alot of animals from these holding centres as does Animal Lifeline.

The one that I deal with has improved since when I first started helping them out. When I first went there organised chaos was not the word! The animals were housed in temparary cages stacked on top of each other, but they quickly realised that this was far from ideal and invested in some proper large metal (easy to clean) crates that are now built in. They are the same ones that vets use and quite large. If they have larger animals in (such as cats) then the crates have removable internal sides to make the cages bigger.

They are indoors, warm and secure and the animals are safe there whilst waiting for placements.

Personally I take ferrets, terrapins, smaller caged animals (such as rats, mice, hamsters and gerbils) and occasionally birds and Animal Lifeline deal with the rabbits and guinea pigs from there (although I often offer to take the aggressive rabbits to save Christine's a valuable space in rescue. The reptiles are sent to a reptile rescue that they have contact with and most of the birds to a bird rescue.

The difference with this holding place is that it isn't open to the public and the public cannot visit (unless coming to claim a stray). No animal will be homed from there by the RSPCA staff working from this base. The cats are sent to their own rehoming centres and the smaller animals have to go to rescues already checked out by one of the inspectors. This ensures that all animals have back-up for the rest of their lives.

The RSPCA often passes on the selected rescue numbers and since the rescues are working with the RSPCA euthanasia is very rare now. :D

This is the way that this particular area runs their holding place, more so because none of their local branches have small animal rehoming facilities and without asking other rescues for help they would have to put to sleep all of the small caged animals that are often dumped. It is one of two main London branches though so they need to have a quick turn over because there are a large amount of animals dumped in London and the surrounding areas.

If the holding base runs out of room then the animals are often housed at either the RSPCA Putney animal hospital or the RSPCA Harmsworth animal hospital and then passed on directly to the same rescues mentioned above once their 7 days are up (they have to be held for 7 days in case the owner comes forward to claim them.)

Emma
 
I think what upset me more is that although they have been bringing animals to me for around 2 years or so, until now they have still been taking a lot to this holding centre and putting them to sleep after the 7 days. All they had to do was pick up the phone and ask :cry: , its very rare that I cant take strays or abandoned animals when they phone me. I am just glad that someone who actually cares has taken on the task of trying to sort the problem out now.
 
I knew the whole 7 days thing happened with dogs, but should've guessed there was a simialar thing for buns :(
 
sgprescue said:
Somone from the local RSPCA recently contacted me because she wants to sort the local rabbit problem out. Apparantly at the nearest rabbit holding centre the rabbits and guinea pigs are kept there for 7 days, if they are not claimed or homed in that time they are put to sleep :evil: I am starting to get animals from them more frequently now as they are trying to get them to me before they have a chance to be put to sleep. Its sad that it has taken this long for anything to be done about it though :cry:

Yeah I was told that most of the RSPCA centres in Norfolk don't cater for rabbits or guinea pigs so that was partly why they set-up a few years ago the other places only "do" cats and dogs so the smaller furries had nowhere to go (they don't take GPs but said there was another local lady that did). In Cambridgeshire at least there are a couple of big places that take small furries.

Pierre and his brother were brought straight to them by the animal collection officer because Pierre's bro was in a bit of a state and the collection officer felt he needed immediate attention and care. They don't officially take in directly from the public but are supposed to tell the public to contact the RSPCA collection officer and arrange it through them - which more often than not means the rabbits go through the holding centre before coming to them unfortunately. Sometimes they end up taking a rabbit directly in special cases though.

If anyone in the Norfolk area (around Kings Lynn) wants to become a rabbit fosterer they have some new pens on order than can be set up inside a shed or made into an outdoor structure with the addition of a roof. I can't currently do this as I couldn't give that many bunnies enough attention but hope to do it in a few years time. Hopefully the rabbits they have in will be appearing on RR shortly - just need to get some photographs done.

Caz
 
it seems wrong somehow that the RSPCA see themselves as so above other rescues that some would rather see an animal PTS than go a rescue which may be perfectly fine, but is just not 'approved' :?

I know they want the best for the animals, but many other rescues other than the RSPCA CAN and DO provide that.
 
mandy said:
it seems wrong somehow that the RSPCA see themselves as so above other rescues that some would rather see an animal PTS than go a rescue which may be perfectly fine, but is just not 'approved' :?

I know they want the best for the animals, but many other rescues other than the RSPCA CAN and DO provide that.

Yes but it is easy to become approved - you just ring the RSPCA and ask them to check you over. I am pretty sure that is what happened with Greenfields.

They just may not know the rescue is out there - for example when I spoke to Block Fen the so called rabbit lady there couldn't think of another local rabbit rescue I could try until the receptionist butted in with the one I ended up going to (I already knew of through RR) but if there was/is another local one, not listed on RR I wouldn't know how to find out about them if other local rescues haven't heard of them!

However if an RSPCA centre obviously dissaproves of a rescue's set-up then you have to question why.

Caz
 
mandy said:
it seems wrong somehow that the RSPCA see themselves as so above other rescues that some would rather see an animal PTS than go a rescue which may be perfectly fine, but is just not 'approved' :?

I know they want the best for the animals, but many other rescues other than the RSPCA CAN and DO provide that.

Yeah, but there are some dodgy ones too. There's loads of people on Free ads calling themselves Rescues, & there's been the odd thing on here too :?
 
That is so true sadly.

I remember taking a rabbit years back from a place that had been running for donkeys years as a rescue.

He had ear mites so badly that they had spread out of his ears completely covering both of them, over half of his face and down part of his neck. He was covered in what I can only describe as cornflakes. One of his eyes was swollen completely shut through the mite infestation. He was a young buck of about 7 months old and lay totally floppy in my arms as he was so miserable.

The owner of the rescue told me that it was pasturella, there was no cure and she waiting for him to die.

I took him and got him straight to the vets (he had not seen the vets at all yet) and they just gave him a course of Ivermectin. Within 24 hours the cornflake scabs had all dropped off, revealing pink skin. After a few weeks the fur grew back and he was a normal, happy, nutty buck!

This rescue was an established rescue who had been running for years and years, but obviously could not afford to take the animals to the vets. The RSPCA had never approved them to my knowledge and for good reason.

This is why they insist (in my area at least) in going to check them out. If an animal is going to be allowed to get into that state and my vets thought that he had probably been in misery for weeks, then they are sometimes better off put to sleep. If I hadn't have found him hidden away in a 3 foot urine and faeces soaked hutch facing the fence (so nobody would see him) how far would the mites have spread before he finally succumbed to shock/infection?

Its no good putting them in a worse situation.

Emma
 
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