I have written about this several times, most recently, following Brian May’s resignation as vice-president, here:
HARDtalk with Ingrid Newkirk – Animal Wild
I had allowed myself to believe that the RSPCA made no money from the wholly discredited scheme and so remained mystified as to why they didn’t just drop it. Why did I think this? Because I read this on the RSPCA’s website: “No, as a non-profit charity, we do not receive any payments from the farming industry, nor do we receive any public or government funding.” This is disingenuous to say the least. I should have read on: “The only income we receive is an annual membership fee from our members and a licence fee for the use of the RSPCA Assured logo.” The implication is that these are trivial amounts.
This morning I read in The Times: “Almost 4,000 food suppliers pay to use the RSPCA label.” Given that I had been bamboozled by the first sentence above, it was time for some fact-checking.
The one-off joining fee is £36. Not a huge sum, but not bad if you multiply it up. Prices after that vary depending on types and numbers of farmed animals, but very roughly it costs between £200 and £300 per breed. If, for example, you are a farmer who raises up to 12,000 turkeys, up to 6,000 laying hens, and up to 30,000 chickens and ducks, it will cost nearly £750. For dairy and beef cattle and sheep it’s a little cheaper, just under £150 each, for any number of pigs £299. For salmon and trout it is closer to £600. An abattoir pays around £450. This seems to me a lot of income.
The RSPCA say that there is no profit, all the money is ploughed back into the scheme. The abysmal record now revealed strongly suggests that this is simply untrue.
It would be useful to know the total received from the scheme. I have looked at the organisation’s annual review of the scheme for 2022 and it does not seem possible to extrapolate a figure, although income derived from “charitable activities” is £5,205,669. I cannot think all of this comes from the licence fees alone, but no wonder they don’t want to give it up. And where is the transparency?
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