The RSPCA marks its 200th anniversary this year and we’re looking back on the how the charity has benefited the county.
Founded in 1824, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is the oldest and largest animal welfare organisation in the world and one of the largest charities in the UK.
It has its roots in the intellectual climate of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Britain, where the harsh use and maltreatment of animals in hauling carriages, scientific experiments including vivisection, and cultural amusements of fox-hunting, bull-baiting and cock fighting were debated by social reformers, clergy and parliamentarians.
A meeting was held on Wednesday, June 16, 1824, in Old Slaughter’s Coffee House in London and a vote passed to establish the society. Among the founding members were slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce. Originally known as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the organisation was granted royal status in 1840.
One of its key roles is animal rescue – quite literally, in some cases. A picture shows the RSPCA’s Mark Fletcher being handed Polo the cat after he became trapped in a tree near Trinity Gardens in Whitehaven.
Above is a picture of an RSPCA officer rescuing another cat from a flooded house in Cockermouth in 2009.
It’s hard to believe that anyone could abandon Clay the pony, yet when his owners no longer wanted him the RSPCA stepped in. It released the picture as part of its 2017 cruelty statistics alongside an image relating to cock fighting and hare coursing in Cumbria.
Another daring rescue centred on a lamb trapped in a pipe at Chapel House Reservoir, Uldale, in May 1970. Pictured from left are the RSPCA’s chief inspector Richard Nairn and probation inspector Bill Cottingham with Stephen Clark and a neighbour.
Throughout the charity’s history, fundraising has been crucial and pictures show an RSPCA fair in Carlisle’s Market Hall and Christine Brown receiving a cheque for £300 for the RSPCA’s Felledge Equine Centre.
In 2014, RSPCA investigating officer Will Lamping led an operation convicting Liam Wootton of starving a dog to death and retired RSPCA inspector Alan Green took in two homeless cats.
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