Last month’s news that RSPCA Chief Executive Jeremy Cooper, had stepped down just a year on from taking up the role, offered a clear indication of the continuing turmoil at the organisation’s West Sussex HQ. Reeling from a succession of failed court cases, falling contributions and most recently a £25,000 fine from the Information Commissioner, morale within the 193-year-old body is at rock bottom. There were great hopes for Cooper. He seemed keen to distance the RSPCA from the fixation with fieldsports and farming which has dominated its agenda in recent years and has brought with it so many problems. Everyone has been very tight lipped about the reasons behind his departure, on Cooper’s part one suspects because any pay-off will be tied to a gagging clause, but even without the inside story it is possible to make an informed guess as to what lies behind it.
Cooper’s departure coincided with the annual elections to the RSPCA’s Council. Among those appointed were David Thomas. Thomas is a member of the animal rights group Animal Aid, an organisation whose director, Luke Steel, has a number of criminal convictions (as do other of its employees) related to Animal Aid’s aims. When covering the Council elections, the Countryside Alliance pointed out that David Thomas seemed to have forgotten his links to Animal Aid, when answering the following question put to him on the RSPCA ballot paper: “Do you confirm that you are not nor have been within the last three years involved with any organisation that condones or carries out illegal acts to further the welfare of animals (or other cause) and that you condemn such illegal acts?”. Mr Thomas said yes. It is clear that Thomas is suffering from Waldheim’s disease, so named after the former Secretary General of the UN, whose selective memory loss included his role in the murder of Serbian partisans during WW2. If so Thomas doesn’t have to look far for help with his condition, because his ballot paper was seconded by Dr Richard Ryder. Ryder, a long time animal rights proponent specialises in clinical psychology and so his expertise may help Thomas in his struggle with the truth. In the light of this Cooper’s widely reported apology for the RSPCA’s loss of direction in recent years and his further commitment to re-orientate its focus towards the aims for which it was set up, would not have found favour with Thomas, Ryder and those who support them.
In the meantime, the presence of Thomas and other animal rights fellow travellers on the Council (we estimate five in all) suggest that the RSPCA will go on squandering funds pursuing ultimately unsuccessful legal cases against fieldsports enthusiasts, leaving less money available to tackle the frightful and genuinely cruel pursuits of dog fighting and puppy farming, never mind the rising cases of neglect.