Q. Why is the RSPCA in business with the largest battery egg producer in Australia?
The RSPCA says it’s against the cruel battery cage yet maintains a business arrangement and accepts sponsorship from Pace Farms, Australia’s largest battery egg producer. The RSPCA say their Liberty Barnlaid Egg Endorsement Scheme with Pace will ensure some hens get out of their cages, yet the number of battery hens in cages has not decreased while the RSPCA gets paid (to date) over $182,560 in royalty payments. Meanwhile, Pace Farms has just built the largest battery hen factory in the southern hemisphere (West Wyalong).

Q. Why does the RSPCA justify overcrowding, beak mutilations, lack of perches, prevention of roosting, chronic stress and electric shock training to the hens they abuse for their barnlaid approved eggs?
The Animal Liberation Victoria undercover rescue team repeatedly videotape and photograph all of the above cruelties inside RSPCA approved barnlaid sheds.

Q. True or False: The RSPCA is the only animal organisation legally able to prosecute for cruelty in Victoria?
True. (Section 24 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act – POCTA). Other Victorian animal organisations depend on the RSPCA to investigate their cruelty complaints. For twenty years Animal Liberation Victoria has presented clear violations and gross suffering in egg-laying factories, broiler chicken sheds and intensive piggeries, yet the RSPCA ignores this evidence and fails to prosecute.

Q. How often do the RSPCA routinely inspect those businesses and industries that use the majority of animals in Victoria?
Chickens are the most numerous animals used in Victoria requiring the protection of the RSPCA.
Millions of birds in hundreds of breeding farms, battery/barnlaid and free-range egg farms, and broiler (chicken meat) farms rated only three routine inspections in 2002. The inspections are cursory. What hope do the animals have, especially if inspections are at Pace Farms?

Q. Killing them softly? Is the RSPCA involved in sending animals to the slaughterhouse?
The RSPCA is also in business with pig producers. Otway Pork was a sponsor of 2006’s Million Paws Walk and the RSPCA makes $$$ from pigmeat sold by Otway Pork. Pigs are as intelligent as dogs. Would the RSPCA send all the unclaimed lost dogs who they euthanise to a slaughterhouse to be electrically prodded, terrorised, have their throats slit, then hung up by one leg to bleed out, with some possibly entering a scalding tank alive? Ask them why they treat pigs this way.

Q. What creatures (great and small) does the RSPCA serve or cook at it’s fund-raisers and family days?
The RSPCA consistently serves animal flesh at their public functions knowing the enormous pain and terror these animals suffered during their rearing, transport and finally their slaughter at the abattoir. There are numerous meat-free alternatives they could use to spare these creatures this torment while also leading the community forward with a truly humane and healthy food choice.

Q. What did the RSPCA do to help 378 dogs at a cruel Ballarat Puppy Farm?
Eurovision’s Puppy factory which was situated near Ballarat had been farming thousands of puppies in extremely cruel conditions for over twenty years. Repeated evidence of abuse presented to the RSPCA was dismissed, who claimed that the farm’s operations were legal. After video evidence of an undercover rescue was presented, the RSPCA still maintained “No animal welfare issues observed”. Finally, sustained protests and lobbying of Ballarat’s local council by campaigner Debra Tranter and Animal Liberation Victoria resulted in the farm’s closure due to appalling conditions.
The RSPCA then delivered it’s greatest slap in the face when it mislead the public in it’s newsletter, implying that the closure of the factory was due to their efforts! A very cleverly worded article proclaimed the closure of the Puppy factory, and while it never actually claimed victory, the clear impression given to the reader was that the RSPCA had ordered the closure.

Q. How is the RSPCA currently handling the case of starving horses in Tolmie?
For seven months now the RSPCA have issued four compliance notices to an animal hoarder who has red-worm infested horses in her care. To date, nine horses have died as a result of insufficient nutrition and lack of adherence to a proper rehabilitation regime. Many more horses are still in danger and yet the RSPCA refuses to seize the horses, claiming that they cannot do so while the owner complies with veterinary advice. The RSPCA appointed vet, however, has since discontinued involvement due to frustration that the owner is not following the procedures he has set out. (Read “RSPCA fails horses in need” for the full story).