Talk:RSPCA Australia

TV
There is Not references about tv serie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSPCA_Animal_Rescue

Untitled
Should the article talk about their shelters for animals and such?

Leave it alone
i think the page should stay the same!

--202.61.173.77 (talk) 04:40, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Room For Improvement
'''I feel much more information & facts need to be included in regards RSPCA Australia, similar to that on the RSPCA UK page:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSPCA

State by state information should be included to show the variation in the laws of each state, as each state does vary.

Perhaps further information & expansion on the history, current structure, mission statement, charitable status, & goals of the organisation would be enlightening & helpful. Further examples of valid criticisms of the organisation would provide a balanced view for the public arena.

There are no images on the page. Images of the Australian history of the organisation, Shelter images, images of the work the organisation carries out would be interesting & helpful to the public both young & older.

Statistics such as those contained on the RSPCA UK page would be useful such as:-

Founder(s) Richard Martin, William Wilberforce, Reverend Arthur Broome Founded 1824 Location Southwater, West Sussex, England Key people Ray Goodfellow (General Manager) Area served England and Wales Revenue GBP 119,926,000 (2008) Employees 1,505 (2008) Website http://www.rspca.org.uk

Further external links would also be of assistance.

I hope someone will assist by including the above suggestions. RIP Kato (talk) 23:51, 12 September 2011 (UTC) '''

police powers in nsw
from special constable#australia: Recent changes to New South Wales Legislation have removed all Police powers of Special Constables, who under the new legiglation are not considered members of the Police Force. Interstate police are now sworn as 'Recognised Law Enforcement Officers'. It remains to be seen if similar action will be taken for those who previously exercised police powers as special constables Gmip (talk) 09:57, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Criticism - Expanded
I felt that the wave of criticism that RSPCA Tasmania has suffered needed to be represented here, as it was fairly notable and at times reached the national newspapers. So I've added a heavily referenced section on the matter. Let me know if you don't agree with this. Anjwalker  Talk 11:44, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Lynne Bradshaw
Why is her bonce emblazoned in enormous size as the most significant picture one could post about the RSPCA (AU)? While I mean her no disrespect, that is simply inappropriate: she is not the organisation, she is not even a lynchpin of the organisation (just the momentary head in a loooong history), and we could just as reasonably put a picture of the Queen there. It shall ALSO be noted that she is not even mentioned AT ALL in the article, except in the picture and the infobox. And if people wanted to know what she looks like, they can go to her own page which would exist if she were notable enough to have one! Therefore, this smacks of political aggrandisement, and inappropriate for this Wikipedia article. I shall, therefore, with the briefest acquiescence of the population, REMOVE said picture. Please explain your restorations below. Aragond (talk) 01:13, 26 January 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:44B8:41CD:3800:68F7:7C2A:B877:D7DF (talk)

NSW merge
The page should be de-merged as the merge of the RSPCA NSW page with the RSPCA australia page has resulted in an article that Clouds many of the issues - RSPCA NSW is a MEMEBER organisation of RSPCA Australia and all the details used in goals and programs are programs that are run by RSPCA NSW only - the Merged article makes it seem that they are National programs - Which they are not. Also It removed ENTIRE sections of the history of RSPCA NSW. It would seem that someone from the outside has said 'Australian internal division - Who cares?' to me. Also RSPCA NSW PREDATES RSPCA Australia by at least 40 years, if not more, as it existed before federation - The only acceptable way to merge them into the one page would be to give each state it's own clear segment — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marradin (talk • contribs) 04:34, 18 November 2013 (UTC)  Marradin (talk) 04:47, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

Hi User:Tikuko, my first instinct is that this should be unmerged, but perhaps you could explain why you [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RSPCA_Australia&diff=568973206&oldid=565997441 merged it]? Was there some discussion about this page somewhere else that we need to consider? Each of these state-based organisations are part of a different legal framework that exists in each state of Australia, and most of them (including RSPCA NSW) is actually written into the Acts of the state, so they are separately notable in my opinion. See "The RSPCA NSW inspectors were recognised as Special Constables by an amendment in 1943 to the Police Offenses Act, 1901" found in the old RSPCA NSW page [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RSPCA_NSW&oldid=562836522 here]. If there are concerns about the content, other than notability, we can ask some Australian editors to help with the cleanup/balance/etc. John Vandenberg (chat) 05:10, 18 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Thank you for pining me. I removed the history section because it was redundant to the history section here. I merged them because it was the only RSPCA article separate from here, and it seemed redundant when compared to this. It was not a "haha australian internal division let's butcher its content" issue as Marradin seems to be implying so much as it was a "I don't think this is notable enough to stand on its own" issue and I didn't want to take the risk of the article being outright deleted by someone else for notability issues. I have no objections to de-merging them if you'd like (I hate to say "i don't care what you do here" because that doesn't go over well here for the most part, but that's how I feel.) I also have no issue with reinstating anything I took out that you feel would be better served placed back here. I didn't trim anything with the intent of discrediting the organization (Although in the interest of full disclosure, I do have a track record of somehow accidently pissing off Australians.) -- T K K ! bark with me if you're my dog!  21:51, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

I have unmerged RSPCA NSW. -- John Vandenberg (chat) 09:37, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

Royal Warrant
This article currently says "The Royal Warrant was given to all the SPCAs in 1932."

The original page, created in 2006, by user:Ozdaren listed the royal warrant as 1956. In June 2011, user:Jibee123 [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RSPCA_Australia&diff=prev&oldid=436656240 changed] it to 1932.

Their website says 1923.

This book (published in 2010) says 1956. As does this metadata at NLA.

This metadata says that the Queensland organisation added 'Royal' to its name in 1955. John Vandenberg (chat) 00:23, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

Also it is important to note that the above article states that RSPCA Australia first formed in 1980 Marradin (talk) 10:12, 19 November 2013 (UTC)
 * These may be different flavors of the same organization? For example sometimes a company will form on x date, reform or merge or something on y date, reform again on z date, etc etc and it becomes confusing. Just a suggestion. -- T K K ! bark with me if you're my dog!  21:53, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

The problem is actually the reverse - They are similar organizations, with the same goal in the long term who use different methods to achieve said goals - They all formed in the 19th century, When distance communication was more difficult than it is now. so that the organizations have a goal (That they all still agree on) but often disagree on methods (even to the point where it has been suggested that RSPCA ACT is considering leaving the national body until other members get their kill rate lowered)Marradin (talk) 08:01, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Inspectors and special constables
As far as I know, there is no such thing as a 'RSPCA Australia' inspector; they are employees of the state organisations. Anyway, before trying to clarify the relevant paragraph I would like to confirm which states and territories have special constables. Note that Special_Constable is entirely about NSW, with only the note that "Similar provisions apply in other Australian states." John Vandenberg (chat) 00:48, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

Split this article into the state bodies perhaps?
This article is getting filled with stuff about the state bodies - the Tasmanian section of criticism is getting huge alone. Should they be split off to their own articles now? They are independent organisations in any case, RSPCA Australia is very little more than a peak body. JTdale  Talk 07:10, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on RSPCA Australia. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20120302034654/http://www.sosnews.org/newsfront/?p=239 to http://www.sosnews.org/newsfront/?p=239

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 20:24, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Fresh attempt to edit
I have made a few attempts to improve the article by adding in a history section that briefly refers to the creation of England's SPCA in 1824, as well as some brief sentences on animal cruelty in the Australian colonies which leads up to the creation of each SPCA in the colonial states. I have also provided proper details on the years when the royal warrants for each state were bestowed (please note that inaccurate information re history and royal warrants will be found on some of the official RSPCA websites). I have also added very brief sentences regarding each state branch such as the founders as well as the current state/territory legislation with relevant links. Also added a bibliography.

I suggest that the "criticism" section for NSW and ACT be removed from this article as the problems are state/territory specific issues that are not directly relevant to describing the formation and role of the national body. In other words "criticism" sections should be relocated to the relevant wiki article for NSW etc. Of course Wikipedia at present only has a separate entry on NSW and Tasmania and I have tried to improve both those articles with historical background. I believe there is justification for creating separate entries for RSPCA WA, RSPCA QLD, RSPCA SA and that given the size of the ACT and the Darwin organisation that a single article perhaps with the title RSPCA Territories (ACT & Darwin) would be pertinent until such time as both organisations develop profiles that warrant them later on becoming separate articles.

What is required, and I will make a brief foray into it, is to describe RSPCA Australia in the current climate of animal welfare issues such as the part it has played regarding controversies like "live export trade" which can be documented in a fair/balanced way without being reduced to a partisan platform for factional advocates of the "welfare" approach vs advocates for "animal rights."

It is worth noting that so far no academic textbook exists that discusses the history and role of the individual state RSPCA groups let alone the national body. There is much information that can be accessed on-line with respect to newspaper accounts about the founding of each state organisation. The state bodies do have their own archives but none of these have on-line access. Most annual meetings were profiled in press accounts in the 19th century and these can be accessed via the National Library of Australia's TROVE site. Copies of older annual reports for the RSPCA bodies are held in some Australian public libraries but none appear to have been digitised. More recent reports are available in PDF versions from the state bodies' websites.

So far the only state bodies that have produced their own story-books about their origins are RSPCA Queensland (Elizabeth Webb in 1951) RSPCA Victoria (Barbara Pertzel in 2006) and RSPCA South Australia (Wallace Budd in 1988). The only academic publication that discusses the history of RSPCA Tasmania is from Stefan Petrow (2012). Jennifer MacCulloch's PhD thesis (Uni of Sydney) is helpful on the history of NSW (it is not online but copies exist at NSW State Library and Uni of Sydney). Some of the early founders/members in the various states (e.g. Sir Alfred Stephen, Sir William Stawell, Sir John Colton) are profiled in Australian Dictionary of Biography which has free on-line access. the history sections should give credit to early individual members who created or helped to develop the state bodies and who did so on the basis of their religious convictions. The history sections should also include some brief details about the role of women in the respective organisations.

It might also be noted that "animal law" is a relatively new field of legal study in Australia (first course was taught in 2005 at UNSW) and there are publications that have some relevance on the subject of animal welfare law in Australia. Some brief information (while avoiding technical discussion that might confuse non-lawyer readers) about legislation is possibly warranted for all articles. In simple terms each state has a Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (POCTA; or now Animal Welfare Act; also relevant are various Companion Animals Acts) that mostly applies to domestic creatures, and the laws (plus some state regulations) refer to powers conferred on inspectors (i.e. RSPCA inspectors). There are many other pieces of legislation from colonial days onwards that have dealt with other "animal issues" (e.g. eradication of "pests" - feral species of rabbits, camels, brumbies, pigs etc; live export; zoos/veterinarians; etc). There are legal exemptions made for primary industries which allows for experiments on animals, the live export trade etc and there are restrictions on what RSPCA bodies can/cannot do. Whether one likes/dislikes a given RSPCA body is not pertinent to providing on wikipedia a descriptive neutral recognition of the fact that there are boundaries in existing legislation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Philjohnson (talk • contribs) 00:31, 26 May 2017 (UTC)