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RSPCA to review Animal Rescue protocol

The RSPCA has been told to review its agreement with Channel Seven's RSPCA Animal Rescue.

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Any reality or documentary producer will tell you that the presence of cameras changes everything.

Yesterday the RSPCA was told to review its agreement with Channel Seven’s RSPCA Animal Rescue.

A New South Wales government inquiry recommended the RSPCA review its agreement with Animal Rescue, following a raid where koalas were removed from a wildlife park at Gunnedah in New South Wales.

In February TV cameras from Imagination Television accompanied RSPCA inspectors as they raided the Waterways Wildlife Park and removed 8 koalas found to be stressed, dehydrated and malnourished.

Nancy Small, one of the owners of the park, told ABC Radio’s PM that the day was made more difficult by the presence of a film crew.

“To me it was just setting up the whole scene for a TV program, just to get an expose for the film crew. And really on the day I just couldn’t understand the whole thing.”

The inquiry recommened that the RSPCA ensures that its contract with Imagination Television requires the Animal Rescue film crew to obtain written consent from property owners prior to the commencement of filming.

Steve Coleman from RSPCA conceded, “…..the involvement of Animal Rescue in some quarters has been considered salt in the wound. That is a risk that any organisation takes when they involve shows such as Animal Rescue and it clearly escalated on this occasion.”

Source: ABC Online

5 Responses

  1. Ellen, sorry to inform you but the RSPCA is far from rich. As a supporter of this wonderful organisation, I did my homework. It costs $34M a year to run the RSPCA – the government gives them less than 2%! The rest is made up from donations such as mine!
    Also the Australian RSPCA has Nothing to do with the UK version. There is no money or power in this organisation – just a group of dedicated staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to help animals in need who scramble each year to find the funds to keep their shelters open and their inspectors on the road. I am not criticising smaller organisations but without Inspectors, you have no policing of cruelty and no prosecutions. So why so harsh on the only organisation dedicated to bringing crimes against animals to justice?!
    As for euthanasia, the RSPCA only kill animals that cannot be rehomed due to illness or behavioural problems – otherwise they stay up for adoption for as long as it takes. Get your facts straight!

  2. “Animal Rescue” is a farce. It is all about rescuing kittens out of walls or drains, or bats up a tree as if the RSPCA responds to any call. Just ask people what happens when they do want the RSPCA to come. They don’t come. This TV show is scripted. I understand that Channel 7 admits that. Quite clearly in one of the early episodes they used dogs that were trained to bark on cue – notably a dog that was shiny and silky and had been “tied up and neglected”, supposedly for a very long time. The only sign of ill treatment was barking on cue!

    The more I know of the wealthy RSPCA and its begging bowl, the more disgusted I am with all but the unpaid volunteers who genuinely like animals and are not in it for money and power. The whole organisation needs reviewing. It is going the same way as in the UK where they are now going to concentrate only on prosecutions and leave the care of unwanted animals to the small charities which love and rehome the bulk of the animals they receive instead of killing more than half.as the RSPCA does. A spokesperson for the UK said it is OK to still advertise how they care for all animals as they care for some.

  3. i’m sure i remember reading a few years back when the show was at it’s peak how proud they were for letting the cameras in becaue of the awareness and money it raised for the RSPCA. i’m sure the cameras would be annoying but at the end of the day i rekon the RSPCA has more to lose than imaginaton and 7. they were probaby going to axe the show anyway, wasn’t rating and it’s easily replaced.

  4. I disagree – this show brings attention to the awful things that people do to animals simply because they are animals. If you’ve done nothing wrong, then there should be no problem with a camera filming it.

  5. this show is a total joke, all it does is show people that you can treat animals like crap, even torture and kill them and at your most unluckiest – all you might get is a $200 fine. This show way more bad than good.

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