The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has a long history in Tasmania.
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The state’s first animal welfare inspector was based in Hobart 140 years ago. He was appointed mainly to look after the welfare of working horses.
Since then, the society has grown, employing inspectors in the North, North-West and South of the state, with shelters and foster homes across Tasmania, catering for all animals.
Australia’s first RSPCA was founded in 1871 when a public meeting was held to discuss the ill treatment of horses in Victoria. Following the establishment of the society in Victoria, other states followed.
“Here, it started off as the Tasmanian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and that was in 1878 so we’ve been here 140 years,” RSPCA Tasmania chief executive Peter West said.
“The first inspector started in 1979. That came about because of concerns for the welfare of horses, because most people rode horses then, and dogs, because there were a lot of organised dog fights in the streets.”
There was a “definite lawlessness” to the early years of Tasmania, Mr West said.
“It was a tough place. Of course, there were other things as well but they were the main things – horses and dogs, and the really interesting thing is that of all the cruelty complaints last year, the main two complaints we received were about dogs and horses.
“The more things change, the more things stay the same. That doesn’t mean things haven’t changed – of course they have. We’ve got a whole lot of animal welfare laws that are so different now than they were 140 years ago.
“That is right and proper. That is the change of civilisation across that time.”
The governor of Tasmania chaired the first meeting on animal welfare in the state, which led to the formation of the Tasmanian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and later, the Royal Society.
“The whole notion of animal rights and animal welfare goes right back to Socrates’ time, so there’s a long history there, but here in Tasmania, RSPCA undoubtedly has been working on getting better results for animals since that first meeting,” Mr West said.
The first RSPCA was established in the UK in 1824. Mr West said it was around the time the world was experiencing a social movement of “caring”.
“And out of that industrial age, people started to worry about each other. There were all these people living in great big cities. They started to care more for each other.
“There were a whole lot of charities that were established for people in need. And then out of those charities came the RSPCA.”
Mr West said it was the children of Hobart who led the animal welfare movement in Tasmania.
“They stood up for animals and there are some really good reports about some kids at a school who decided not to get on a horse to go up Mount Wellington because the horse was too malnourished.
“It was a different time so these were animals that were used for transport. They were pulling carriages, they were carrying people, they were used on farms, they were used to transport people up hills and down dales. They were the engines that moved people, that transported people.
Mr West said, while most people treated their animals with respect, a lot of people just saw them as machines.
“So this was part of that growing social movement towards a more caring society. People decided they should do something about it."
The first animal welfare laws in Tasmania were passed in the 1830s, and since then, Mr West said there was a lot for Tasmanians to be proud of.
“1878 was very early in the establishment of RSPCAs right across Australia. We were one of the first states to start an RSPCA.
“Over the years, it’s sort of fluctuated from being more on the animal rights side to being more on the animal welfare and I think nowadays, most people would agree we sit fairly firmly in the animal welfare space.
“From an animal rights point-of-view, the RPSCA doesn’t go far enough, and from a primary industries or intensive farming point-of-view, we probably go too far.
“So the RSPCA is that organisation that sits in the middle. We sit in the middle where most of the population sits. We’re the voice for most of the population.
“We certainly don’t go far enough for the animal rights and we go too far for the intensive farming. Our position within the community is one that allows us to sit at the table and negotiate better deals with those people that matter.”
Mr West said the RSPCA sat in a place that no other organisation in Tasmania sat.
“We’ve been here for 140 years, we’ve got a bedrock organisation here. We fight battles pretty much everyday to get better outcomes for animals.
“We are much less animal rights than we were 10 years ago, and we have learnt, I believe, across Australia that is it better for us to be sitting at the table than it is to be on the outside throwing rocks. We are making real changes."
- The RSPCA’s Cupcake Day fundraiser is on Monday, with events across the state. The fundraiser page will remain open for the whole of August.