Parliamentary inquiry into RSPCA in WA is 'insulting', says president Lynne Bradshaw
Updated
A parliamentary inquiry into the funding and role of the RSPCA in Western Australia has been described as "infuriating" and "insulting" by the organisation's chief.
The Legislative Council committee was established after Shooters and Fishers Party MP Rick Mazza raised concerns that the RSPCA was drifting from its core function into wholesale opposition to live exports.
The organisation's WA president, Lynne Bradshaw, said evidence given to the inquiry by farming lobby groups was unsubstantiated.
She said the inquiry was a malicious campaign intended to throw suspicion over the RSPCA's activities.
"It is an important opportunity for the RSPCA to directly address the unsubstantiated allegations and malicious gossip that has been perpetrated against the organisation and that's both from within and outside the Parliament," she said.
"Since this inquiry has been called, the RSPCA has been the subject of what can only be characterised as a malicious campaign aimed at creating an environment of suspicion and doubt that is calculated to damage the good reputation of the RSPCA.
"Examples of the kind of baseless nonsense being levelled at our organisation includes claims that the RSPCA is lurching towards activism, our inspectors that are public officers are abusing their powers, that we are anti-farming and that we are misusing Government funding.
"If it were not for the fact that some of these [allegations] are so serious in imputation, they would be laughable.
"But what is more disturbing to our organisation is that they are now being used as justification for this inquiry and the crude publicity that is being undertaken to support it.
"It is our submission this morning that there is nothing that has been presented to this inquiry justify any of these baseless allegations... which we are believe are both fiction and fantasy".
The RSPCA has the unique power to prosecute people for breaches of the Animal Welfare Act, but has faced heavy criticism from some in the agricultural and faming industries in recent years over how it has used that authority.
The WA Farmers Federation last month testified before the committee, with a spokesman stating the RSPCA should focus on preventing cruelty to domestic animals and cease its "activist campaign" against the live export trade.
The committee is due to report by the end of the year.
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