Scottish SPCA & Royal SPCA reach truce

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

EDINBURGH, LONDON–The Scottish SPCA and
the Royal SPCA have signed a joint memo of
understanding under the auspices of the Institute
of Fundraising to “avoid any future confusion,”
Scottish SPCA chief executive Stuart Earley
confirmed to BBC News on December 15, 2009.
“Under the new agreement,” BBC News
said, “the Royal SPCA will add a line to all its
advertisements making it clear that it only
operates in England and Wales. It will also send
all donations made out to the ‘Scottish RSPCA’ or
‘RSPCA Scotland’ to the Scottish SPCA.”
“We want people in Scotland to support
the Scottish SPCA. Even more importantly, if
there is an animal in distress in Scotland, we
want people there to contact the Scottish SPCA to
get help,” Royal SPCA chief executive Mark Watts
told BBC News.
The Scottish SPCA in February 2009
published £100,000 worth of full-page ads in
Scottish newspapers and posted a web site–still
up in early January 2010–that accused the Royal
SPCA of Britain of “stealing food from the mouths
of Scotland’s defenseless animals” by advertising
to Scottish television audiences.
“We have asked the RSPCA to make it
clear it does not save animals in Scotland.
After six months of talks we are no further
forward,” said Earley then.

Responded the RSPCA, “If a station is
able to restrict Scottish coverage, we only buy
English and Welsh airtime. However, many
satellite channels only enable us to purchase
U.K.-wide.”
The Scottish SPCA in a 2005 survey of
10,000 donors found that 87% had mistakenly
donated to the RSPCA. The RSPCA raised £114
million in 2007, helping to fund 172 branches in
England and Wales. The Scottish SPCA,
struggling with cash flow for more than a decade,
raised £10 million.