Celebrities And Vets Call On RSPCA To Ditch Assurance Scheme

Ricky Gervais, Joanna Lumley, and Moby are among dozens of celebrities, vets, pro-animal groups, and former RSPCA board members who have called on the RSPCA to drop its farm assurance scheme, RSPCA Assured. In an open letter to RSPCA CEO Chris Sherwood and Board Chair Claire Horton CBE, the signatories condemn the scheme for “welfare-washing animal cruelty.”

The letter comes after Animal Rising conducted a huge undercover investigation into RSPCA Assured farms across the UK over the summer. The animal rights group found animals suffering on every one of the animal farms it visited across a four month period. Among the worst and most frequent breaches were animals left dead and dying inside barns. The revelations led to RSPCA president Chris Packham calling the evidence of animal suffering “utterly indefensible.”

Vegan celebrity Moby performing on stage — Capital Pictures / Alamy Stock Photo Moby is among the celebrities to have signed the letter

As the RSPCA celebrates its 200th anniversary, the open letter congratulates it on making “the world a kinder place” but asks it to protect all animals and promote a transition to a plant-based food system.

“I’m a big supporter of the RSPCA, but with their Assured scheme, they’re failing to protect the billions of animals who are farmed,” Heather Mills, one of the letter’s signatories, told Plant Based News.

For Charlie

A campaign called For Charlie has launched alongside the letter. Charlie is the name of the piglet who Animal Rising activists rescued from one of the farms it investigated. They found Charlie with a large growth on her face that required medical attention. Charlie is now living out her life in a sanctuary. But millions of other pigs, chickens, and fishes continue to be raised for food on RSPCA Assured farms.

A rescued pig named Charlie who was at an RSPCA Assured farm at a sanctuary — Animal Rising Rescued pig Charlie is now living in a sanctuary

BAFTA-winning film-maker Alex Lockwood has captured the animal welfare issues with RSPCA Assured farms in a new short film. Animal Rising goes into detail about the welfare violations it found in a report published earlier this year. It found animals suffering from untreated infections and injuries and left to die in their own waste. Others were inappropriately and roughly handled. Some animals did not always have access to clean and sufficient food and water. While RSPCA Assured says it does not certify factory farms, Animal Rising says that the farms are clearly intensive with severe overcrowding on some.

The open letter says that cruelty is inherent to animal farming and abuses are “widespread” on RSPCA Assured farms. It also accuses the RSPCA of hiding this reality from the public by giving animal farming its “stamp of approval” and marketing it as high welfare. Another recently released investigation by Joey Carbstrong into a RSPCA Assured dairy farm revealed cows being hit with chains, kicked, and verbally abused by workers.

“They’re communicating to the public that animals in these farms have led good lives, when the reality is widespread suffering,” Mills said of RSPCA Assured. “The evidence is heart-breaking. It’s time the RSPCA protected all animals, dropped their Assured scheme and shared the truth with the animal-loving public.”

Other signatories to the letter include academics, barristers, GPs, journalists, and politicians from the Green Party and Animal Welfare Party.

An RSPCA spokesperson told Plant Based News: “Improving the lives of farmed animals is central to what we do. We know that improving farmed animal lives is challenging, but we are constantly striving to drive up standards through improved legislation, better enforcement and farming practices. Thanks to our farmed animal welfare standards millions of animals around the world have better lives.

“Both the RSPCA and RSPCA Assured take any welfare concerns on farms very seriously – this is the sole focus of the scheme and central to the core work of the RSPCA. Failure to conform to the scheme standards is unacceptable. Once concerns came to light, RSPCA Assured launched an immediate investigation and visited all farms identified as being members.

“But we want to give our supporters, partners and the public confidence that RSPCA Assured is consistently delivering better welfare than standard farming practices. So, alongside this investigation, we launched an independent review of RSPCA Assured, which has been carried out over several months, including unannounced visits to more than 200 members of the scheme. This is in addition to the existing checks we have in place as part of the scheme.

“This has been a fine grain and comprehensive review looking at a large number of farms and the analysis is still ongoing. We will assess this and communicate our findings as soon as we are able.”