{"id":262,"date":"2010-09-16T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T01:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=262"},"modified":"2010-09-16T11:39:15","modified_gmt":"2010-09-16T01:39:15","slug":"rspca-tasmania-%e2%80%93-back-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=262","title":{"rendered":"RSPCA Tasmania \u2013 back on track"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>Almost a year into the role, and with the organisation\u2019s well-documented internal difficulties resolved, Tasmania\u2019s RSPCA branch president Paul Swiatkowski isconfident public confidence in the organisation has now returned.\r\n\r\nSwiatkowski has a long association with the RSPCA, having served both as a board member and state president, as well as being a former employee.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou could say I\u2019ve got a passion for it. My first job was RSPCA vet in Launceston. It was my first job offer when I left university over 25 years ago so I thought I\u2019d better take it! Strangely enough I received three other job offers in about a week, but I felt honour-bound to take up the first position, which I thought would only be for about a year. It\u2019s ended up being a lot longer than that!\u201d\r\n\r\nEven so, he did not anticipate his offer to help the RSPCA through the turbulent months before and after last September\u2019s AGM would involve another term as state president, but if the plans and initiatives currently on the drawing board can all be successfully implemented then he will be \u2018more than happy to retire!\u2019\r\n\r\nSwiatkowski aims to take the organisation back to its roots. He wants to see a combination of decreased administration, and increased funding to expand the inspectorate, to benefit animal welfare outcomes. His long-term aim is for the RSPCA to significantly reduce the number of animals that are euthanased, and match the result the ACT\u2019s RSPCA branch has already achieved.\r\n\r\n\u201cEuthanasia statistics in the ACT, for dogs anyway, are about seven per cent. And the seven per cent relates to animals who are either sick, or have permanent ongoing issues such as aggressiveness, or wanting to kill other animals – behavioural type issues. Or animals that simply can\u2019t be re-homed for various reasons.\r\n\r\n\u201cIdeally we\u2019d like to get Tasmania\u2019s euthanasia rates down to seven per cent, and hopefully find homes for a lot more animals than we have been doing.\u201d\r\n\r\nTwo initiatives that he hopes will help achieve this are creating a foster care network for animals, and employing an animal behaviourist, whose work would particularly involve those dogs that might otherwise be unable to find homes. However serious illness for the organisation\u2019s recently-appointed chief executive officer Karen Vanderpols, has so far delayed the introduction of both these initiatives.\r\n\r\nUnder Swiatkowski\u2019s stewardship the RSPCA has taken a more proactive approach towards the media, and been more outspoken on the state\u2019s animal welfare issues.\r\n\r\nHis public comments on issues ranging from Tasmanian devils, legislation surrounding the capture, transport and utilisation of brushtail possums, and alternative measures to control galah populations in Tasmania\u2019s north-west, have all helped re-establish the RSPCA\u2019s reputation as an advocate for animals within the community.\r\n\r\nThe RSPCA has also been prominent in recent debates about the revision of cat management legislation, and the issue of sow stalls. The latter resulted in an announcement in July that Tasmania would be the first state to phase out their use.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe RSPCA in Tasmania made submissions about sow stalls before it was the vogue to do so, and it seems to have had a cascade effect. We\u2019re now leading the country in terms of phasing them out but I can honestly say there was a lot of cheering from RSPCA branches around Australia when it happened. It was a very positive animal welfare outcome, and in spite of what industry says there are alternatives to sow stalls that will have the same sort of financial outcomes, without any of the negative animal welfare impacts.\u201d\r\n\r\nAs a consequence of the previous board\u2019s \u2018relative disorganisation\u2019 Swiatkowski was obliged to comment on plans to revise Tasmania\u2019s cat management policy without being fully aware of the RSPCA\u2019s input into the legislation. While he fully supports having the ability to control cats in sensitive areas, and is not opposed to tighter regulations for cat control, he is critical of the proposed legislation that penalises cat owners, when the ability to accurately identify ownership remains inadequate.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe whole crux of the legislation relies on identifying animals. If an animal doesn\u2019t have a microchip then we don\u2019t have a genuine ability to identify the owner. If you can\u2019t provide proof of ownership you can\u2019t award a penalty. So it\u2019s a catch-22 situation. And as much as the RSPCA cares about the life of cats, it also cares about the life of wildlife, and wildlife have as much right to life as cats, or any other animal.\u201d\r\n\r\nAttitudes have changed significantly over the past 20 years and the public now have far greater expectations in relation to the welfare of animals. Unlike animal activist groups, to achieve improved animal welfare outcomes the RSPCA must work within the law, and cooperatively with both state and federal governments of the day. Swiatkowski acknowledged this can be challenging.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s an issue the RSPCA struggles with. More and more with severe cases of cruelty we\u2019re hoping for custodial sentences. For serious cases we can collect evidence, we can bring it before the magistrates, but having done all that \u2013 and it\u2019s a fairly costly exercise to do it \u2013 sometimes the magistrates don\u2019t come to the party and impose penalties we\u2019d expect.\r\n\r\n\u201cBut if we can return to our original aims of preventing cruelty to animals, finding more homes for animals, and de-sexing animals so fewer of them end up in shelters, then I\u2019ll be happy.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnne Layton-Bennett<\/strong><\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost a year into the role, and with the organisation\u2019s well-documented internal difficulties resolved, Tasmania\u2019s RSPCA branch president Paul Swiatkowski isconfident public confidence in the organisation has now returned. Swiatkowski has a long association with the RSPCA, having served both as a board member and state president, as well as being a former employee. \u201cYou […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,102,103,104,75,101,105],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cruelty","tag-paul-swiatkowski","tag-personnel","tag-president","tag-rspca","tag-rspca-tasmania","tag-tasmania"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Almost a year into the role, and with the organisation\u2019s well-documented internal difficulties resolved, Tasmania\u2019s RSPCA branch president Paul Swiatkowski isconfident public confidence in the organisation has now returned. Swiatkowski has a long association with the RSPCA, having served both as a board member and state president, as well as being a former employee. \u201cYou could say I\u2019ve got a..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"92":{"name":"cruelty","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cruelty"},"102":{"name":"Paul Swiatkowski","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=paul-swiatkowski"},"103":{"name":"personnel","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=personnel"},"104":{"name":"president","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=president"},"75":{"name":"RSPCA","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=rspca"},"101":{"name":"RSPCA Tasmania","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=rspca-tasmania"},"105":{"name":"Tasmania","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=tasmania"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}