Hi i dont suppose any of you know what else i can do but over a week ago i reported a dog that i considered to be in disstress/suffering to the RSPCA who i thought would deal with this straight away.However several days later,after receiving no contact from them although i was asked if i wanted to be contacted to find out the outcome,i noticed an rspca man go the address concerned with another person who was in ordinary clothes knock on the door,there appeared to be no answer so they went round the side of the property and had a nose about and promptly left.I rang again and explained that this dog was often left to its own devices and what their procedure was when they got no response after a complaint(the complaint by the way is that a supposed staffordshire bull terrier(doesnt resemble a staffi at all)is being left alone for days on end and not only that it is very thin (as a rizla paper) and seems to have a problem carrying its back legs,often crying and howling in the day time.I was told that the rspca have no power at all to break in unless they get the police??Whats the point in this,by the time they get involved the dog could dead,god forbid!!The rspca have apparently been to the address twice with no response,what else can i do as im still concerned about this dog and feel like banging my head against a brick wall!!

Hi Guest,

Its a long shot but maybe you could have a word with your local dog warden, I'm not sure they have any powers but they maybe able to have a word with the owners about proper care etc. The rspca are pretty useless.

report it to your local police, give them all the information. and they will have to deal with this poor dog
lets just hope its a good ending.
Loulu

if you can get Rolf harris to come around youll find the RSPCA most helpfull!

If the poor dog has shelter and water you just as well go and bang your head against the brick wall.

Unfortunately you will find very few people on here with anything good to say about the RSPCA.

At least they went to the house, which is more response than most people have had.

Hope the dog is OK

have you thought of offering to take on the dog if the owners cant cope? i knew a man years ago who had a thin whippet sort of puppy and my daughter used to play with his daughter. one day she went round to knock on the mans door to ask if his daughter could come out to play and she heard the man shouting at the puppy then he shouted at her that she couldnt come out and to go away so she went to walk away and she heard him kicking the puppy and it was yelping like mad. she came straight home and told us and we decided to go round and talk to the man (nicely of course we didnt want to make it worse for the poor mite) we made up an excuse said that our daughter really liked the puppy and we had "heard" through the grapevine that they might be selling the puppy. the man said no problem so we paid £30 and took the puppy home, found it a home with a family friend. puppy was fine once shed been wormed and fed properly. im not suggesting you do this if you are not able but its worth a try asking if the owners can cope and offering to help if you are concerned....mind you they might tell you where to go we knew the man in question through his daughter being friends with ours but he could have told us to get lost lucky for the puppy he didnt

Hi Guest

I believe that in cases like this if the RSPCA think that an animal is being abandoned in a building they will visit.  They put tape or something similar discreetly over the door where it's not immediately noticeable and then revisit to check whether the tape has been broken indicating that someone has opened the door.
If the tape is intact then they have grounds for believing that no one has entered the property to attend to the animal inside and will do whatever they have to to legally gain access. 
Lara x

Loads of you might not approve of this but if the dog does go out in to the garden, when the owners are not looking open the gate and let the dog out. Then pick him up and call dog warden or what ever is the way to report an abanded dog roaming the streets. Say you dont know where it came from but its a stray. If hes really that skinny they will act. Best do it away from the neighbours lol. If this were my neighbours i would do it to save him from further cruelty.

Good idea, you will probably find they will not want the dog back once in care of local authority as they will have to pay to get it released.