Queen guitarist Sir Brian May has quit as the RSPCA’s vice-president over what he called “damning evidence” of animal welfare failings related to its food certification label.
BBC News reported on Thursday that the association had to run spot checks on more than 200 ‘RSPCA Assured’ farms to ensure they met its own standards.
Animal welfare activists say their own undercover investigations found the scheme covering around 4,000 farms was failing to ensure even basic legal standards. They also want RSPCA president Chris Packham to stand down.
The RSPCA said it had “different views from Brian on how best to approach this complex challenge”.
The BBC has reached out to conservationist and TV presenter Mr Packham for comment.
Sir Brian, who has long campaigned on animal welfare issues and against the culling of badgers to protect farms from bovine TB, published his letter of resignation on Instagram.
In it, he said: “It is with profound sadness and not without massive soul-searching that today I have to offer my resignation as a vice-president of the RSPCA.”
He said he had been kept informed “of complaints that have been levelled in recent months at the RSPCA over appallingly bad standards of animal welfare in member farms of the RSPCA Assured scheme.
“I have understood that the RSPCA needed time to evaluate the evidence and make decisions on action to be taken.
“But as more and more damning evidence comes to light, I find the RSPCA’s response completely inadequate.”
He added that as the supervision of the scheme had “failed”, it needed to be dismantled.
Allegations against around 40 farms in
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