TRUSTEES' REPORT
Our objective
The objects of the RSPCA are to promote
kindness and to prevent or suppress cruelty
to animals and to do all such lawful acts as
the Society may consider to be conducive or
incidental to the attainment of those objects.
Royal Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1932
2014 at a glance
2014 was a year of review and change to meet
the dual challenges of a difficult economic
environment and the resulting increase in the
number of animals abandoned or inadequately
cared for.
Trustees undertook a detailed review of the services that the RSPCA
provides and benchmarked its work to ensure that it was providing
value for money and achieving progressive change to improve animal
welfare. A five-year development plan was put in place to prioritise
those animals in most need, ensuring that service provision was in the
best locations and at the right level to deliver the most cost effective
outcomes. A restructure across the organisation has now been
completed in many of the departments in head office, and this will
continue across the regions in 2015.
This report highlights four key areas of focus that will allow
us to deliver this new strategy:
modernising and streamlining our inspectorate operations;
ensuring our hospitals, centres and clinics are in the right places and
maximising their help to deliver the Society's goals;
strengthening our support for RSPCA branches and integrating the
workload of the RSPCA family more closely;
raising public awareness of the breadth and scale of work the
RSPCA undertakes across many species of animals and ensuring that
the public know that to support the RSPCA is to support the most
abused and desperate animals in England and Wales.
We will also highlight a selection of six of the many areas where
real impact has been made in 2014 and set out our aims for 2015
and beyond.
RSPCA Trustees' report
TRUSTEES' REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2014 5
1,299,163 calls to the RSPCA
24-hour cruelty line
58,654 animals
microchipped
159,831 complaints of alleged
cruelty investigated
40,815 cats
rescued
82,746 welfare notices given out
to improve animal care
16,733 wild animals admitted
to our wildlife centres
2,419 convictions secured in
the magistrates' courts for
animal welfare offences
15,912 dogs
rescued
1,132 people prosecuted for
animal welfare offences in
the magistrates' courts
5,514 rabbits
rescued
179,693 treatments dispensed
(not including neutering)
670 horses in our care
at the end of 2014
81,781 animals
neutered
257 million fish and animals reared under
RSPCA welfare standards