Reporting Cruelty, Neglect or Bad Pet Shop Conditions

[Tamsin]

Immediate Action is Required

If you spot an animal that you feel is being cruelly treated or neglected and needs immediate attention you should:

• Call the RSPCA 24 hr National Helpline on: 0300 1234 999
• If it is a pet shop, you can also contact your local council (see yellow pages), as they are responsible for issuing pet shop licences.

You should not:

• Contact the person concerned
• Encourage others to contact the person concerned
• Post Details on the forum

Why? Contacting the person concerned may result in evidence being destroyed preventing a prosecution. Photographs or any other 'evidence' you attempt to collect cannot be used as evidence in a prosecution.

If you keep contacting the person involved or more than one person contacts them, it could be deemed harassment and lead to a police investigation and action being taken against you.

You may need to be patient when waiting for an inspector to visit. Cases are prioritised depending on the risk to an animal not how many calls are received. Although neglect maybe distressing for you to see, it is not necessarily life threatening. It is essential that you do wait, otherwise again evidence may be lost. If a case is being brought or indenting to be brought against someone for cruelty or neglect then the RSPCA will not be able to give you details of the case. Doing so could harm/prevent the case being brought.

Encouraging any illegal activities will result in an infraction or ban from the forum.

To complain about general conditions in a Pet Shop:

If you want to complain about general conditions in a pet shop then you can contact your local council by phone, email or letter. To do this:

• Identify the local Council for the location in which the pet shop is situated.
• Go to the particular Council's website and search for "pet shop". This will normally give a link to the council's Pet Shop Licence Conditions or contact details from whom a copy can be obtained. (Plus contact details for the department that handles complaints).
• If these Conditions can't be found, then Google "Pet Shop Licence Conditions". The licence conditions of most councils are usually very similar (but it's better to get the specific ones for the particular council).
• If the Council has a "Licensing" section on their website, it is often possible to review the "Registers" and identify the specific pet shop and its licence number.
• Read the Licence Conditions carefully and produce a list of those circumstances that you have observed and the specific licence conditions with which they are non-compliant. All of RU's "favourite" problems (e.g. mixing rabbits/guinea pigs, customers and their children/dogs "interfering" with animals, etc) and poor treatment of animals are covered.
• Send a polite email or letter to the relevant council department setting out these non-compliances and asking them, as the organisation responsible for issuing and monitoring licences, to investigate these non-compliances.

Also check out the particular council's website for "customer service standards" (or similar). They usually have defined timescales for replying to correspondence. In the event of no reply, the council can then be asked to explain why they are not meeting "their own standards".

It is also possible to raise these non-compliances directly with the pet shop (or chain of which it is part). They agreed to comply (and maintain compliance) with these Licence Conditions in order to get the licence. It is their responsibility to ensure that their staff do so.

However, this approach should only be used with discretion. An angry pet shop operator is unlikely to welcome being advised of their deficiencies.

[Lucy]

The RSPCA number has now been changed and is only available on 0300 1234 999.

[Azraelm]

If you spot cruelty abroad, here's how to report it:
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Sate...=1154077763301

[blue_vix]

When I had a complaint about a local petshop, I rang the generic council number and asked to speak to the pet shop licencing department. After initially being put through to alcohol licencing I eventually got through to the right person. I had a lengthy discussion with her and explained that I though mixing Guinea Pigs and Rabbits was a breach of keeping animals safe and free from harm, infection and diesease. She said she hadn'd realised that and keeping them seperately wasn't a part of the local pet shop licence agreement, but it is now so that was a great outcome. What wasn't so great was that when they raided the petshop all but one of the animals had been sold so there was no evidence of the overcrowding, but they were warned someone had complained and will get another unannounced inspected in the next 6 months.

[georgie_f]

When I had a complaint about a local petshop, I rang the generic council number and asked to speak to the pet shop licencing department. After initially being put through to alcohol licencing I eventually got through to the right person. I had a lengthy discussion with her and explained that I though mixing Guinea Pigs and Rabbits was a breach of keeping animals safe and free from harm, infection and diesease. She said she hadn'd realised that and keeping them seperately wasn't a part of the local pet shop licence agreement, but it is now so that was a great outcome. What wasn't so great was that when they raided the petshop all but one of the animals had been sold so there was no evidence of the overcrowding, but they were warned someone had complained and will get another unannounced inspected in the next 6 months.

Well done!

I complained about a local pet shop and the owner's being prosecuted. I'd pretty much given up hope of the Council actually even doing anything as I hadn't heard from them for ages, but then an email randomly turned up letting me know. I felt quite proud of myself!

It's definately worth complaining.

[catastrophyrat]

I got a shop closed and the owner got a court sentence but he disappeared to the USA however they were still pursuing him -Wycombe Council were great-the RSPCA totally useless.

[milli89]

I am originally from Mexico but had been living in US for the last twenty years. Recently I went to my native place to meet my grandparents. It was at this time that I had the chance to see cockfighting for the first time in my life. In my view it is a very cruel sport. I would like to put an end to it. Can anybody let me know how I will be able to do that?

[lostsouls65]

I recently rescued some rabbits (one which turns out to be pregnant), I was looking to get some rabbits but thought rescued ones would be more rewarding for me. My friend alerted me that her neighbour had rabbits and was breeding them for the sake of money and not pleasure. She approached her and asked if she would sell any.........I went there and ended up with 4 rabbits, as soon as left I reported her to the RSPCA, I was shocked how she kept them. She had little kids running to catch them and pick them up which no doubt terrified them. I am so glad I did what I did, love them all dearly, now I am waiting for one of them to give birth, she should be due any time now, will keep the babies too

PS: Yes RSPCA did visit

[little-laura]

I am disgusted with a pet shop near me, [admin edit-name removed] they have animals everywhere its very cramped and the bunnies are in cages far to small for them, they dont seem to have a healthy diet as their droppings are horrible, they are only feeding them the rabbit mix stuff no healthy pellets or veggies....
they have lots and lots of birds so the poor buns never have any peace the place is pack full of animals... they have two Guinea pigs too both the rabbits and the guinea pigs seem terrified of people....

-______-

I dont know what to do I cant even remember if I saw a licence also the people who ran it were harsh, rude and cold towards me and the animals....
thing is I dont know if they meet the licensing guideline as I didnt know about them until now and the shop isnt open when I finish work I popped in there on the way back from the doctors....

[GrahamL]

I am disgusted with a pet shop near me, [admin edit-name removed] they have animals everywhere its very cramped and the bunnies are in cages far to small for them, they dont seem to have a healthy diet as their droppings are horrible, they are only feeding them the rabbit mix stuff no healthy pellets or veggies....
they have lots and lots of birds so the poor buns never have any peace the place is pack full of animals... they have two Guinea pigs too both the rabbits and the guinea pigs seem terrified of people....

-______-

I dont know what to do I cant even remember if I saw a licence also the people who ran it were harsh, rude and cold towards me and the animals....
thing is I dont know if they meet the licensing guideline as I didnt know about them until now and the shop isnt open when I finish work I popped in there on the way back from the doctors....

Contact your local Council, ask for the pet shop licensing team and report them.