Founded in 1824 The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals was the first charity of its kind anywhere in the world. In its maiden year no less than 63 offenders were taken to court by the society and in 18490 it was granted royal status by Queen Victoria, hence the Royal part.
Throughout the 19th century the RSPCA mercilessly lobbied parliament in order to get legislation through regarding the protection of animals. Some of the first legislation passed included: The Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 which served to outlaw baiting and in 1876 amendments were made to control experimentation on animals.
Since its inception the RSPCA has played a pivotal role both in the creation of new legislation and its enforcement a more recent piece would be the introduction of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
The RSPCA is a registered charity relying solely on voluntary donations, it receives no lottery or state funding. Its intention is to promote the idea of kindness, prevent cruelty and to relieve the suffering of all animals by any lawful means. In 2009 the RSPCA successfully rescued 135,293 animals and investigated 141,280 cruelty complaints.
Through its purpose as a body for animal protection the RSPCA had made a move into the world of pet insurance the idea of which is to help people with the ever increasing costs of pet ownership in fact nearly 50% of all domestic pets see the vet at least once a year. Now the key point of this insurance policy as opposed to other options is that every year 20% of your premium will be given to the charity in order to help them continue their fantastic work. This is something I feel strongly about and I feel that since it is still competitive choice for pet insurance it seems like the obvious choice for animal lovers. If you are at all interested, even if it’s just to learn more about the policy you can have a look at http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/supportus/petinsurance
