15 Reasons for Animal Lovers to be happy about 2019
The Twelve Days of Christmas features a lot of animals, and today it’s the turn of the Seven Swans a Swimming. Throughout the year the RSPCA has been active in ensuring that animals – both domestic and wild – are taken care of. This blog gives you an insight into what the charity has been doing over the last 12 months.
“2019 has been another busy year for our dedicated team, for everyone from our inspectors and our vets to our campaigners and our volunteers. It's been a busy year for you guys too, with supporters taking hundreds of thousands of actions to improve the lives of animals this year alone!
After campaigning against the use of circus animals for 25 years, we've successfully steered a ban on wild animals in circuses in England. In Wales, real momentum swung behind our campaign to end the giving of pets as prizes. Caerphilly and Wrexham joined Newport in banning the practice. We launched our broiler campaign. So far, Waitrose, alongside 21 others, including KFC and Wagamama's, have signed up to The Better Chicken Commitment - benefitting more than 50 million chickens annually.256,000 supporters have signed our petition handed into Tesco, asking them to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment. They have now agreed to trial a new slower growing breed. The 3rd party ban on puppies and kittens being sold has been agreed to come into effect in April 2020 (meaning only the breeder can sell kittens and puppies under six months old).Legislation has been agreed to increase the sentencing on cruelty to service animals.462 volunteers participating in our litter pick at 16 sites, protecting animals from plastic and other waste. Over 23,000 supporters emailing their local councils asking for tighter restrictions on fireworks.11 councils (so far) are considering action to reduce the impact of fireworks on animals. Our Cat Smart project has helped to tackle over-population through neutering. Preventing up to 5,200 unwanted kittens from being potentially abandoned.12,000 supporters emailed their MP supporting tougher sentencing for animal cruelty. Almost 100,000 young people were reached this year through Generation Kind. Over 100,000 people supported our #BetterDealforAnimals campaign, by signing a petition calling for recognition of animals as sentient beings in law.83% of dog owners said, as a result of our #DogKind campaign, they would be 'much more' or 'more' likely to seek help for their dog if they had separation anxiety. 79% will now reconsider how long they leave their dog at home alone. In 2019, our volunteers gave 200,000 hours of their time, helping care for animals in need!
We couldn't do it without you. Thank you so much, from us and every animal!”