RSPCA Australia (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is an Australian peak organisation established in 1981 to promote animal welfare. Each state and territory of Australia has an RSPCA organisation that predates and is affiliated with RSPCA Australia.
It describes itself as a "federated organisation made up of the eight independent state and territory RSPCA Societies."
RSPCA Australia defines its purpose as being the leading authority in animal care and protection, and to prevent cruelty to animals by actively promoting their care and protection. It also monitors the use of animals in media.
Objective The objective of RSPCA Australia is to provide a national presence for the RSPCA movement and to promote unity and a commonality of purpose between the state and territory based bodies. The national Council of RSPCA Australia meet three times a year. Each affiliate RSPCA has two members on the national Council. The Council meets to formulate new policies and offer advice to government and industry bodies on animal welfare issues.
History In each state and territory of Australia there are separate RSPCA organisations that are differentiated by their state/territorial names such as RSPCA NSW, RSPCA Victoria and so forth. During 1980, two meetings were held among delegates from each state/territorial RSPCA body to enable the formation of a national RSPCA body. The first meeting of the RSPCA Australia was held in February 1981.
British Background
The Australian-based RSPCA societies owe their origins to the RSPCA in England. Although no formal link exists between the RSPCA in both countries it is the UK experience that led to the formation of societies in the Australian colonies. The intellectual climate of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Britain reflected opposing views that were exchanged in print concerning the use of animals. The harsh use and maltreatment of animals in hauling carriages, scientific experiments (including vivisection), and cultural amusements of fox-hunting, bull-baiting and cock-fighting were among some of the matters that were debated by social reformers, clergy, and parliamentarians.For detailed discussion on the British background see Hilda Kean, Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain since 1800 (London: Reaktion Books, 2000). Rob Boddice, A History of Attitudes and Behaviours Toward Animals in Eighteenth- And Nineteenth-Century Britain: Anthropocentrism and the Emergence of Animals (Lewiston, New York; Queenston, Ontario; Lampeter, Wales: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008). Kathryn Shevelow, For the Love of Animals: the Rise of the Animal Protection Movement (New York: Henry Holt, 2008). Some early legislative efforts to ban practices such as bull-baiting in the English parliament were made in 1800 and 1809, the former effort led by William Johnstone Pulteney (1729–1805) and the latter by Lord Erskine (1750–1823) but the proposed Bills were defeated.Shevelow, For the Love of Animals, pp 201-240.
The first anti-cruelty legislation that was passed by Britain's Parliament occurred in 1822 was known as the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 (3 Geo. 4. c. 71), and was drafted by the Irish politician and lawyer Richard Martin (1754–1834).On Martin's career including his anti-cruelty to animals campaign see Peter Phillips, Humanity Dick The Eccentric Member for Galway: The Story of Richard Martin, Animal Rights Pioneer, 1754-1834 (Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Parapress, 2003). In 1821 some sympathetic support for Martin's legislative work was centred around the efforts of Reverend Arthur Broome (1779-1837)as he had letters published in periodicals in which he canvassed for expressions of interest in forming a voluntary organisation to promote animal welfare and oppose cruelty."To Correspondents" The Kaleidoscope, 6 March 1821 p 288. Also see The Monthly Magazine Vol. 51 April 1, 1821 p 3. "The Brute Species". "Notice" in Morning Post, 17 February 1821, p 3. Similarly see "Cruelty to Animals" The Sporting Magazine, Vol. VIII New Series No. XLIII (April 1821), p 33. See comments on these notices in Shevelow, For the Love of Animals, pp 267-268.
In 1822, Broome attempted to form a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that would bring together the patronage of persons who were of social rank and committed to social reforms. Broome organised and chaired a meeting of sympathisers in November 1822 where it was agreed that a Society should be created and at which Broome was named its Secretary but the attempt was short-lived.Shevelow, For The Love of Animals, 268; Arthur W. Moss, Valiant Crusade: The History of the RSPCA (London: Cassell, 1961), 22.
Broome tried once more to create the Society and he invited a number of social reformers gathered on 16 June 1824 at Old Slaughter's Coffee House, London to create a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.Lewis Gompertz, Fragments in Defence of Animals, and Essays on Morals, Souls and Future State (London: Horsell, 1852), p 174. Edward G. Fairholme and Wellesley Pain, A Century of Work For Animals: The History of the RSPCA 1824-1934 (London: John Murray, 1934), pp 54-55. The meeting was chaired by Thomas Fowell Buxton MP (1786–1845) and the resolution to establish the Society was voted on. Among the others who were present as founding members were Sir James Mackintosh MP, Richard Martin, William Wilberforce, Basil Montagu, John Ashley Warre, Rev. George Bonner (1784–1840), Rev. George Avery Hatch (1757–1837), Sir James Graham, John Gilbert Meymott, William Mudford, and Lewis Gompertz.A complete list of the founder members is recorded in Gompertz, Fragments in Defence of Animals, pp 174-175. Broome was appointed as the Society's first honorary secretary."Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals" Morning Post 28 June 1824 p 2. Queen Victoria bestowed the Royal Prefix in 1840.Fairholme and Pain, A Century of Work for Animals, p 89
Australian Colonies Early concerns about the maltreatment of animals were expressed in newspaper articles and letters from correspondents in the colony of NSW in the first decade of the nineteenth century.See "Sydney" Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser, Sunday 24 March 1805, pp 2-3. The earliest piece of colonial legislation that carried penalties for some forms of cruelty toward animals was passed in Tasmania (then called Van Dieman's Land) in 1837.Philip Jamieson, "Animal Welfare: A Movement in Transition,' in Law and History: A Collection of Papers Presented at the 1989 Law and History Conference ed. Suzanne Corcoran (Adelaide: University of Adelaide, 1989), p 24. However, there was no co-ordinating body that superintended the enforcement of this early colonial legislation. Sentiments about the necessity of passing substantial anti-cruelty laws and creating organisations similar to England's RSPCA were published in the newspapers in the colonial states of NSW,Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser, Tuesday 12 January 1864, p 2. Victoria,"Cruelty to Animals," The Argus, Thursday 14 February 1861 p 5 South Australia,"Cruelty to Animals," South Australian Register, Monday 1 April 1867, p 2 Queensland,"Cruelty to Animals," The Queenslander, Saturday 13 July 1867, p 5 TasmaniaThe Mercury, Saturday 31 July 1875, p 2. and Western Australia"General News" The Inquirer and Commercial News, Wednesday 24 August 1892, p 2 from the 1860s until the early 1890s as each colonial state established an SPCA.
The first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Australia was formed in the colony of Victoria in 1871.Barbara Pertzel, For All Creatures: A History of RSPCA Victoria (Burwood East, Victoria: RSPCA Victoria, 2006), p 5. This was followed by New South Wales in 1873;"Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 11 July 1873, p 4 . South Australia in 1875;Wallace B. Budd, Hear The Other Side: The RSPCA in South Australia 1875-1988 (Hawthorndene, South Australia: Investigator Press, 1988); also see rspcasa.org Tasmania in 1878;See "Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," The Mercury, Saturday 20 July 1878, p 2 ; also see Stefan Petrow, "Civilising Mission: Animal Protection in Hobart 1878-1914," Britain and the World 5 (2012): pp 69-95. Queensland in 1883;see rscpcaqld.org Western Australia in 1892;See rspcawa.org Australian Capital Territory in 1955 and Darwin in 1965.
A Women's section of the RSPCA in Australia was formed by Frances Deborah Levvy in 1882. However the British organisation disowned the connection after an Australian staff member was found guilty of extortion in 1896. Levvy persevered and the organisation was rebranded as the Women's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The Royal Warrant was given to the WA SPCA in 1920 by King George V,see time-line at rspcawa.org followed by NSW SPCA in 1923,"Talk of the Week. Jubilee of RSPCA" Table Talk, 15 March 1923, p 9 . South Australia in 1937,Budd, Hear The Other Side, pp 94-95 Queensland in 1955,See RQSPCA Tasmania in 1956Tasmanian Government Archives and Victoria in 1956.See Pertzel, For All Creatures, p 97; also see rspcavic.org
RSPCA Australia