I want to work for the RSPCA!

One of the things I hear most often when I tell people I work for the RSPCA is “Oh I would love a job with them,” or “I want to work with the animals, can you help me?” or even “That was my dream job when I was little but I suppose it’s too late now”



Do you want to know a secret? It was my childhood dream too.





Me (with big sister) aged five - already passionate about animals!



The RSPCA has always had a special place in my heart. Throughout my adolescence I raised money for the charity through cake sales and even penned a passionate article about the RSPCA and puppy farms in the magazine I used to write as an 11 year old. (Interesting note: the magazine was alarmingly entitled ‘Kinky Mag’ but only because I had no idea at all what that word meant. Honest).



I staged campaigns and petitions through my school on all manner of animal related issues, including veal crates and battery eggs.


At six, I held a protest in office of my then headmistress, to convince her to make a wildlife conservation area in a wooded patch at the edge of our playing fields.

After much wrangling, she agreed. I didn’t do myself any favours with my schoolmates though. Most rather fancied the idea of a tennis court to be honest.



One summer I even lied about my age to volunteer at an RSPCA branch near Cardiff. (I am not proud of the fact I fibbed...well maybe a little).



I loved it - walking the animals, feeding and brushing them, even cleaning up dog poo. I would call my mum in tears most days begging to be able to bring home the dogs and cats I had been looking after.



Indeed I became so attached to one cat - who I named ‘Dribble Cat’ - that I still have a picture of her in a photo album. Mind you, this was about 17 years ago now, so I would guess Dribble Cat is enjoying fish pie in the sky by now.



But I didn’t start my career working for the RSPCA. Like many people I speak to, I just didn’t know how.



So I became a journalist instead. Which given my auspicious start as the editor of Kinky Mag - is hardly surprising really.



A decade later, I had done my post grad in news journalism, worked as a regional reporter, food critic, theatre and art reviewer and even a health and science reporter.



It was great – although stressful – and yet I had become a little disillusioned with my line of work.



I would occasionally hear people say how much they ‘loved’ their jobs. I liked mine, (a lot of the time anyway), but ‘love’ your job? Surely it wasn’t possible for normal people like me to love their jobs?



Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the travel and excitement that come with my job, but I felt I wanted something more...I wanted to do something that mattered. Something I really cared about.



That was when I saw the advert. Suddenly I realised I would combine journalism with animal welfare by working as a press officer for the RSPCA. I had never even thought of that. WOW.



I found out I had got the job on my 26th birthday and now, here I am four years later.

Its not all going to TV studios and hugging fluffy kittens and lovely bunnies though.

I have watched endless hours of horrible footage; heard harrowing stories from those on the ground; visited countless farms, animal centres, hospitals and branches; watched dozens of castrations and operations; seen the terrible affects of cruelty on vulnerable animal and humans through schemes like Pet Retreat...and yet...



...I can honestly say I do love my job (most days!) and I feel like I do something worthwhile.



I sometimes wonder how I have come so far from the 11 year-old girl sitting in her room writing impassioned articles about puppy farming...to the 30 year-old sitting in an office writing impassioned articles about puppy farms!


But of course, sometimes coming right back to where you started is a pretty amazing place to be.

To find out more about working or volunteering for the RSPCA, why not visit: http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved
 
 
 

Calie Rydings, Snr Press Officer

Flappy New Year!

 You might not have realised but something monumental happened at the stroke of midnight on December 31 2011.

There was no big countdown, no deafening fireworks display and no street parties but for hundreds of millions of hens across Europe life is looking a little brighter.


A barren battery cage



The modest sounding ‘Council Directive laying down minimum standards for the protection of laying hens’ means that farmers can no longer keep hens in cruel barren battery cages.



It’s certainly news to celebrate, it’s a step forward for animal welfare, but sadly the new legislation doesn’t ban all cages – farmers can still use so-called ‘enriched’ battery cages which give the hens a little bit more space, a perching area, a piece of Astroturf to scratch about on and a shared nesting area.



An 'enriched' battery cage - can you spot the difference?!

But it is still a metal battery cage and the hens still have less usable space per bird than an A4 sheet of paper – not nearly enough room to dash about, to rest without being jostled by other birds, or enjoy a good dustbath like barn or free-range hens.

I’ve got a soft spot for hens – my family used to have two gorgeous girls called Sam and Ella who laid the most delicious free-range eggs.

Before I joined the RSPCA I had heard about the ban and wrongly thought that it meant all cages would be outlawed, it appears I was not alone in being mistaken. A recent poll by the RSPCA revealed that 69 per cent of the public didn’t know what the new law meant, in fact 88 per cent hadn’t even heard about it.

Some, like me, guessed all cages were being banned, others thought hens would have to let out of their cages for four hours a day and some even believed that farmers would have to play music to their flocks.

Another sad fact about the new legislation is that a huge number of producers elsewhere in Europe are ignoring it and will still be using old barren battery cages.

A barmy loophole means those farmers can still sell their ‘illegal’ eggs to be used as ingredients despite the hens that laid them being kept in conditions below legal welfare standards.
Worryingly some of these illegal eggs could find their way into some of your favourite products like ice-cream, pasta and cakes.

To be completely sure you are not unwittingly buying illegal eggs, and at the same time doing your bit for the welfare of millions of hens, it’s never been more important to buy cage-free eggs, or food containing cage-free eggs as ingredients.

With Big Ben’s chimes still ringing in your ears there’s one very worthwhile resolution to make in 2012 ‘I will only buy cage-free eggs’.

For your free shopping guide log onto www.rspca.org.uk/eggs

Catherine Peerless, RSPCA Press Officer