SAVING MARIANNA'S ANIMALS
RSPCA WA Overview and saving Marianna’s animals Protest at Parliament
house 23 November 10 am.
The RSPCA in
WA are in dire need of reform, until they can be trusted with public moneys and
the powers awarded to them under the Animal welfare Act, they must be closed
down and investigated through a full parliamentary inquiry.
The recent
actions of the RSPCA in WA prove beyond all reasonable doubt that they are no
longer worthy of public's support, this very brief overview explains why, and
provides ideas on how we can move forward as animal lovers.
I will start
with the case of Marianna, simply because it has created some urgency in
relation to some 80 animals that are all that is left when over 130 were seized
back in December 2012.
The RSPCA WA have said the remaining animals are able to
be released over the next 3 weeks, but even though we have several catteries
and shelters with their hands up to take them, I am still battling the RSPCA to
have them released, as their preference may lead to their deaths.
< I will add documents here, that prove the government knew the RSPCA were doing the wrong thing
I refuse to
at this stage use the word “Euthanize” because these animals are not suffering,
and if they are indeed that sick that they need to be put down, it is the
result of the RSPCA, not the carer they were taken from.
No animal ought to
suffer as a result of a battle between a carer and the RSPCA; animals should
never be used as pawns in a game of power.In brief
Marianna is a compassionate animal lover, retired, this lady spent over a
decade some $200,000 plus on the rescue, treatment and rehabilitation of
hundreds of animals, animals that without her intervention would not have
survived.
The RSPCA
visited her home in or around December 2012 and found one rabbit with blood on
it, seizing it saying it looked like it had its penis bitten of, it had just
been de-sexed.
Marianna
immediately took steps to get the rabbit back, the RSPCA said all would be fine
and asked her to clean up sections of her property, so she called in the hired
help and with the assistance of Michael from the Animal Protection Society,
moved all the animals to her second home next door and started cleaning up and
renovating.
Just over a
week later, while Marianna was out helping animals in need, the RSPCA broke
into her property and started seizing all the animals, (I have seen videos of
the raid) and yes there were some elderly and sick animals on site, those that
were sick were under vet treatment.
The warrant
used was for the wrong address and has been questioned as a tactic by DAFWA in
FOI statements.
Marianna
arrived home during the raid, she offered information about all the treatments
and offered to supply all the current medications, the RSPCA refused to listen
or take the medication with them.
Marianna’s
Vets then phoned the RSPCA saying several were sick and asked if they could
visit and support the animals, as many were their patients, the RSPCA refused.
From this
stage RSPCA shelter records seem to indicate that they were overwhelmed by the
intake and some of the animals were not checked or treated for several weeks,
as a result some of the animals died, others were put down by the society.
On the day
of the raid, the now chief inspector “Amanda Swift” had turned up with the
media, so from that day on, an outcome that painted the RSPCA in a good light,
was indeed essential.
Marianna
lodged a complaint with the (SAT) State Administration Tribunal, who after
several months all but ordered the RSPCA to return the animals, to avoid this
the RSPCA laid last minute charges of animal credulity, for every animal, even
though the majority were healthy and there had been no actions by Marianna that
could have amounted to animal abuse, the prosecution was in the name of the
RSPCA.
I will skip
past the next 12 months to January over 13 months later, where the RSPCA had
over that time used the usual tactic of continuing to adjourn to run their
victim out of money, after 13 months the prosecution was deemed invalid and
dropped and due to WA having a 2 year statute of limitations, new charges were
laid amounting to 13 charges of animal abuse.
Marianna was
never paid back for the costs that ought to have been awarded as a result of
the 13 months wasted by the failed prosecution, I note the prosecution was in
the name of the RSPCA as the respondent, and WA law does not allow private prosecutions.
I note here that DAFWA were aware of this fact as well, and had the powers to
stop it.
The RSPCA at
this stage had wasted; get this, around 1 million dollars in supposed storage
charges, vet and legal expenses on their first failed prosecution.
DAFWA by now
were also having troubled, FOI documents in my hands showed they knew the RSPCA
had made mistakes, that the prosecution was invalid as was the raid on
Marianna’s home, also sighting that the RSPCA had killed animals that were
healthy. They went on to show the new chief inspector was under investigation. (letter to DAFWA march 2014)
When
questioned on the case, they said they would run an investigation after the case
was over, leaving Marianna and her animals to battle the RSPCA’s legal team, a
QC, two barristers and 2 instructing solicitors, all paid for by the state and public
donations.
DAFWA also
demanded that the RSPCA advise Marianna about the murder of HER animals, they
chose to do this by attending her home on Xmas eve with photos of all the
animals they had killed, rather than advising Marianna beforehand allowing
independent vet checks as required at law, what does that say to you?
The RSPCA in
both prosecutions simply refused to advise the state solicitor’s office or
follow the departments procedural and prosecution guidelines, they even started
to refuse answering questions asked by DAFWA and I hear those asked by the
minister.
By late
2014, Marianna had exhausted her finances, all but losing one home over it,
lawyers had already exhausted over $150,000 of her money, leaving her to
struggle on the 60% of her pension, and the RSPCA by now had wasted around $1.6
million of donated public moneys.
(I will note
here that for every $100 raised by the RSPCA in some cases only $12 makes it
into their pockets, which means public donations to their campaign “Friends of
the RSPCA” would have to have raised over 10 million just to cover the cost of
this one failed interaction with a compassionate carer)
Along this
journey I have been privy to many major issues worthy of public scrutiny, the
ex-chief inspector, other RSPCA WA staff and inspectors, their ex-chief vet and
prosecutors have all been in contact providing me with an array of information,
that paints an abhorrent picture of how the RSPCA is being run and how their
moneys were being spent.
The RSPCA
have been ignoring the law, as if they were above it, they were refusing to
adhere to the states prosecution and procedural guidelines, and were in fact
using animals as a tool to extort money from innocent victims.
So let’s get
back to the here and now and most importantly the animals.The RSPCA
decided to offer Marianna a deal, the final terms of the deed are as usual to
remain confidential, in the same way the RSPCA WA have been offering ex staff
extra payments of $10,000 if they sign similar contracts to remain silent about
what truly goes on, begging the question, what have they got to hide.
The deal
between the RSPCA, their chief inspector Amanda Swift and Marianna is purported to include all charges being dropped, all costs to be written off by each party, and the
animals to be released, this is where it becomes interesting.
The RSPCA WA
have indicated that all the animals are now sick, and should be put down, even
though their own shelter records show a majority of the animals were in good
health, if any of us as shelter or sanctuary operators allow this to happen to
animals, we would risk being charged, so how are the RSPCA exempt, something we
as animal lovers must demand is changed.
It is of grave concern that an animal
charity can be awarded powers of prosecution without any safe guards as to how
they use them, even more so when those powers can be used on opposition shelters
and rescuers.
I assisted
Marianna to find homes for the animals, because she in the short term does not
have the facility’s and finances to take them back, we found a cattery
“Blu-Ice” to take them all, but the RSPA said NO, they wanted registered
shelters.
I then
contacted a couple of WA non kill shelters who also put their hands up to place
the animals, the RSPCA then said no to all of those, so what it appears the
RSPCA are saying; “ They don’t want the animals, but they also do not want them
to have a chance at life”, and that is totally unacceptable.
At law these
animals remain the property of Marianna, so she ought to have the final say,
and if the new contract between the parties denies her this right, as animal
lovers, it is up to us to fight for their right to live.
Over the
next few days, as I believe is a part of the contract, Marianna’s vets will be
attending the RSPCA shelter to inspect the condition of the animals, so she
have some idea of how many are left and the health conditions of them.
How dare the
government, the minister and DAFWA allow a compassionate animal lover to have
gone through all of this, to have her life destroyed, her finances with it, and
then allow the innocent animals to be killed, when good safe homes are
available.I am calling
for all shelter and rescue groups to back a protest rally to demand a
government investigation into the RSPCA, and for the minister and the premier
to step in and guarantee the lives of every one of her animals.
Consider
this, the public’s donations received by the RSPCA in this case, have resulted
in anywhere up to $5 million dollars being wasted on a prosecution where the
animals involved have been killed or made sick by their own actions. When all
they needed do is adhere to the law and community expectations and help
Marianna, they could have offered support, issued orders of compliance or taken
many up many other avenues where the best interest of the carer and the animals
were of a primary concern.
Any damages claimed from cases like
this would be worn by the state, every animal seized is on behalf of the state
and every animal forfeitured is to the state, so the state is responsible to
intervene.
This massive
waste of public and tax payer dollars would have gone such a long way if it had
been shared among the many capable rescue and shelter groups in WA, so just
maybe it is time for the government to employ some equity in the way they
support carers and shelters in the state of WA.
I will note here that one of the
shelters that offered to take Marianna’s animals, on their own without
substantial government funding of any kind has re-homed more animals than the
RSPCA WA could achieve in the same time frame, especially as they have a
massively lower kill rate.
I have
several articles I will link to this email that further explain this case, I will
then put together a brief of combined ideals from each shelter in WA and put
that proposal to the government and the Department of agriculture at the
proposed rally. (CLICK HERE)
A rally date
of Sunday the 23rd of November at 10.00 am has been set, so we can use that day
to demand the RSPCA hand Marianna’s animals over to non-kill shelters as is her
wish, of course this is reliant on all of your support and the use of your
Social networking sites to promote the rally.
I am happy
to fly over from Adelaide at my own expense to speak at and MC the rally and
hand the documents over to the media, the government and or DAFWA.
This is only
one case of many (
link to other RSPCA failed cases click here) that are making a mockery of animal welfare in the state of
Western Australia, Brave Heart, Izzy and her babies, the list is long and
arduous, in one case the RSPCA’s chief vet and staff demanded animals be
returned to their owner, as they were healthy and the owner had done nothing
wrong, the CEO overrode that and until this day years later, the owner has
never seen them again, it is time to end this list once and for all.
I will make
copies of all the leaked information, videos, audio and FOI documents, making
them available upon my arrival.
Mark
Aldridge
08 82847482
/ 0403379500
aldridgemark@bigpond.com