RSPCA PROSECUTES CAT LOVER WHILE LETTING THE BIG FISH GO FREE

October 10, 2012

Hands up those of you who did not know that cats cannot metabolise paracetamol, even if given in small doses? Well, Claire Pritchard's hand would have been up, if she had not learned the hard way. Yes, her cat, Midnight, died, but that was just the beginning...

Mrs Pritachard, a 45-tear-old cat lover with two other cats called Maisie Moo-Moo and Sidilicious, gave Midnight a quarter of a 500mg tablet one night when it returned home limping and then another quarter in the morning. When Midnight did not seem any better, The family then called the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) for advice:

"I am really sorry, but I must inform you that Paracetamol does not agree with cats and its life may have been endangered by the drug. Please bring it in and we shall see what we can do. In future please feel free to call us at any time for advice: that is what we are here for. And please do not worry, we will do all that we can in order to help Midnight recover..."

That, or something like that, is what one would expect. What did the RSPCA do instead? They prosecuted Mrs Pritchard under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act. Mrs Pritchard has now ended up with a £280 fine and a two year conditional discharge. If I had been the judge, I would have sentenced the RSPCA instead: £280 for wasting the court's time and two years' worth of obligatory "Get-off-your-pedestal" and customer service training. As for the judge, no comment, lest I get put in the stocks for criticising the judgement.

With so much animal abuse in the UK, both in the laboratories and abattoirs, the RSPCA should have better things to do than to prosecute a misguided cat lover. Like the typical bully, it has decided to go for an easy target.