Immediate Action is Required
If you spot an animal that you feel is being cruelly treated or neglected and needs immediate attention you should:
You should not:
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:
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.
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.
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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.
