Taken from Third Sector news today:

"The RSPCA expects to lose more than 130 jobs as part of a restructuring exercise aimed at saving £2.5m a year.

The animal welfare charity, which employs about 1,600 people, announced that it had initiated a staffing review that is "likely to mean restructuring and a reduction of more than 130 posts", particularly in administration or support roles.

The charity, which had an income of £115.3m and an expenditure of £122.6m in 2010, said in a statement that more than 1,000 front-line staff working with animals would be protected from the cuts. It said the charity planned to increase the number of inspectors it employed in the long term.

It said the organisation had been under pressure from increased demand for its services and rising costs in areas such as veterinary and fuel bills.

It had also been affected by a growing pension deficit and flat investment returns, the statement said.

Gavin Grant, chief executive of the RSPCA, said the charity was "under pressure like never before".

"We need to make the RSPCA sustainable," he said. "We have already saved millions of pounds through a series of cost-cutting measures, but we've had to eat into our financial reserves as the economic slump has been deeper and longer than feared.

"Some hard decisions must be taken. Significant job losses in administrative areas are sadly inevitable but I will protect front-line animal welfare services."

The charity will spend at least two months consulting on the review before the final structure becomes clear."

Sounds like the new broom has started to make some sweeping changes.  

Hmm.. perhaps if they spent less money on flashy advertising and more time actually doing what they want the public to think they do, they wouldn't be in this position!

If they hadn't upset so many dog show people then their donations might not have taken such a dive!

4 years ago I sent of for information about becoming an inspector. They were going to get back to me once applications opened.
That year they didnt take on any inspectors for a whole year and I would have to re register my interest once they were recruiting again.
Life changes meant I didnt.
But they already cut the number of staff 4 years ago :( :(
Lea :)

>If they hadn't upset so many dog show people then their donations might not have taken such a dive!

Yes, I take a certain pleasure out of telling their door to door people (politely) that I can't support them because I own mutant freak pedigrees! :-D

Yes, I tell them as they took the stance they did against show people (with their idiot of a Vet) that I am unable to help them as they surely wouldn't want my money because I show..

Never looked at their accounts but the amounts spent on lobbing must amount to a huge percentage of their income to say nothing of the cost of running their large prestigious offices. Lets hope some of the savings filter down to the grass roots levels where they may actually do some good and enable them to answerer some of the calls and actually help animals in need.

Perhaps if they worked a bit harder with breed rescues, then they may free up kennel space to allow them to take more dogs in.....

Also perhaps less 'fat cat' people doing nothing at the top in big offices may help their expenditure crisis !!!

Gabrielle

They will be (as Vince Hogan said on the Canine alliance), be joining up with others and demanding changes to dog showing and breeding, and part of this they will demand yearly registration with fees payable to them for running the register they will establish, as this will boost their finances. We should right now be supporting the KC.