About us
The Bury RSPCA was founded over 100 years ago.
The Oldham Animal Centre relocated from Rhodes bank, Oldham to our new home on Holgate Street, Oldham and opened on the 6th June 1987 and is licensed to hold a maximum of 27 dogs and 48 cats.
We are a local, independently funded charity responsible for its own income to support the care of the animals at the centre and do not receive day to day funding from the national RSPCA who licence us for our operations. It costs c.£1.1m to run the centre and shops and is only possible from the generosity of members of the public, local businesses, fundraising, donations, legacies and the sale of goods through our charity shops.
2020/21 has been an extraordinary time for us all and no more so that our animals, staff, centre and shops and due to the lockdowns, lack of footfall in the high street and not being able to fundraise normally, we have lost over £615,000 of income, so we need your help – now more than ever.
In 2005 it was agreed that the Bury Branch would merge with the Oldham Branch and together they would form a bigger and stronger branch. The Branch was renamed RSPCA Bury, Oldham & District and continued with the Bury Branch charity number of 226624.
The staff at the Bury, Oldham RSPCA give care and love to the animals in our centre and our knowledgeable staff provide for the individual needs of each animal until the day it can find a kind and loving new home.
We specialise in cats and dogs and do not have small animals (rabbits, guinea pigs etc), wildlife or birds in our care.
Our branch cannot accept animals from members of the public, take in stray animals and have no animal rescue facilites.
To report abuse or cruelty, please call our National RSPCA hotline on 0300 1234999
We are a separately registered branch of the RSPCA and are primarily responsible for raising funds locally. We receive no government funding or lottery aid.88888
About the national RSPCA
“If Legislation to protect animals is to be effective it must be adequately enforced” – Richard Martin MP 1822 co founder of the RSPCA
The RSPCA was founded by a group of twenty-two reformers led by Richard Martin MP (who would thereby earn the nickname Humanity Dick), William Wilberforce MP and the Reverend Arthur Broome originally as a society to support the working of Richard Martin’s Act. This Act had been passed in Parliament on 22 July 1822 and was against cruelty to farm animals, particularly cattle.
The group assembled at the “Old Slaughters” Coffee House in London to create a society with the will and authority to enforce the new law. The SPCA, the first animal welfare society in any country was thus born and was granted its royal status by Queen Victoria in 1840.
At first the organisation did not employ Inspectors. A committee inspected the markets, slaughterhouses and the conduct of city coachmen.
Rev Arthur Broome, from his own funds, employed a Mr Wheeler and his assistant, Charles Teasdall. In 1824 they brought sixty three offenders before the Courts.
In the late 1830s the Society began the tradition of the Inspector, which is the image best known of the RSPCA today.
By 1841 there were five Inspectors, each paid a guinea a week, based in London, who travelled to various parts of the country bringing suspected offenders before the Courts.
News of the work of the Society spread outside London. By 1842, campaigners in Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Coventry and Scarborough had all requested the appointment of an inspector of their own. With the increasing number of donations and bequests the Society was attracting, there were funds to expand beyond the capital.
Regional inspectors were appointed, with local campaigners promising to raise £20 a year towards ‘their’ inspector’s wages. This development created the nucleus of a national network of 175 branches in England and Wales that exists today.
Each year the RSPCA inspectors investigate over 100,000 complaints of cruelty and neglect. The animal collection officers collect over 180,000 sick, injured and abandoned animals every year.