Chris Packham and Caroline Lucas have resigned from the RSPCA in the wake of the latest allegations of animal cruelty at RSPCA Assured businesses.
Campaign group Animal Rising released footage earlier this month showing welfare violations and mistreatment of animals at four RSPCA Assured slaughterhouses, all of which have now been suspended.
RSPCA Assured has come under repeated fire by campaign groups over its standards this year, with four separate investigations revealing rule-breaking under the scheme in the past few months.
Packham resigned form his position as president of the RSPCA on Saturday.
In a post on Instagram he wrote “it is with enormous sadness that I have resigned from my role as president of the RSPCA. I would like to register by respect and admiration for all the staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to protect animals from cruelty”.
In a post on X, former Green Party leader Lucas said she the schemes “risk misleading the public & legitimising cruelty” which is why she was standing down from her role as VP of the RSPCA, a position she had “held with pride for over 15 years”.
She added she had tried with Packham to “persuade the leadership to act but sadly failed”.
Packham told the BBC’s PM programme on Radio 4 that the charity was “beleaguered with the Assured Scheme” which was like a “millstone” around its neck.
“When I saw the footage that had been collected from those establishments… I can’t speak it was so horrific,” he said. “Obviously the society suspended those abattoirs immediately and launched an investigation, but launching investigations has been going on for some considerable time.”
Read more: RSPCA Assured slaughterhouses accused of welfare malpractice
“We agree with Chris and Caroline on so many issues and have achieved so much together for animals but we differ on how best to address the incredibly complex and difficult issue of farmed animal welfare,” said an RSPCA spokesperson.
“We have discussed our work to drive up farmed animal welfare standards openly at length with them on many occasions and it is simply not true that we have not taken urgent action,” the spokesperson added.
In October the scheme completed an urgent review into its governance, with more than 200 farms subjected to unannounced visits following numerous investigations alleging non-compliance on accredited farms.
But despite experiencing months of bad publicity over the allegations, the review – undertaken by third-party audit body Crowe over the summer months – gave the scheme a largely clean bill of health, pointing out it was “operating effectively to provide assurance that animal welfare standards are being met across members”.
In an interview with The Grocer at the time of the review, now former RSPCA CEO Chris Sherwood said the review showed “this scheme is adding benefit for farmed animals”.
Sherwood added that “all our evidence points to a very different picture” than that painted by activist groups.
Read more: RSPCA Assured plays down ‘welfare washing’ accusations and ramps up farm visits
“While 94% of people choose to eat meat, fish, eggs and dairy, it is the right thing to do to work with farmers now to improve the lives of animals, while working to transform their lives in future,” said an RSPCA spokesperson. “We know shouting from the sidelines doesn’t work, we need to take people with us.”
“There is currently little or no legal protection for farmed animals, and very little enforcement. RSPCA Assured visit all farms on the scheme every year, but last year just 3% of farms were assessed for animal welfare by state bodies,” they added. “No one else is doing this work; we are the only organisation setting and regularly monitoring animal welfare standards on farms.”
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