'Fight is not over yet' – campaigners vow to continue battle for Balmore animal centre
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The battle to save the animal rescue and rehoming centre at Balmore is far from over despite its imminent closure, campaigners vowed this week.
A Save Balmore group has been formed with more than 1500 members on Facebook, while a petition launched to save the shelter has gathered at least 3700 signatures.
The Scottish SCPA announced last month that the home would close by the end of October, but the final animals were removed last week. The centre will be handed back to its owners on October 31.
Two members of staff from the centre will be redeployed in the area, while two others have opted to retire, the SSPCA said.
The strength of feeling in the community against the closure shows no sign of letting up this week.
William McGillivray, who established the Save Balmore campaign group along with his partner Sarah Holman, said: “There has been a massive public reaction to it, and it’s mainly down to how quickly they closed it down. They rushed through the closure of Balmore and it took even the staff by shock.
“They were basically trying to get the animals out as quickly as possible, so it was a fait accompli.
“We went round to pick up a bench we had donated to Balmore, and there were no barking dogs – that was the first change – and the exercise yard had 50-plus toys just lying around. It just broke us.
“The place was full when they closed it – even to the day they closed it there were animals being brought in. Why so sudden a closure when it could have been a phased changeover?”
He added: “It’s just a kick in the teeth for everybody.
“We’re far from done – the fight is far from over. We’ll support Cats Protection and KWK9 Rescue, and the wildlife centre in Brora. But why would we support the SSPCA when they’ve just abandoned us?”
The charity’s decision to close the Caithness centre, along with another one in Ayr, was defended by the charity as a move to allow it to bring more services directly to the community, including by increasing the number of fosterers and enhancing partnership working to help reduce demand on such centres.
An SSPCA spokesman said: “The decision was carefully planned and considered. The Board of Trustees approved this decision, which was taken in line with the 10-year strategy we are working towards.
“Two of the key ambitions in that strategy are to reduce unintended cruelty and to empower communities. Each of these ambitions will be well-served by the expanded services and individuals carrying out new roles, particularly in the community space, in Caithness.
“Our strategy was almost a year in the making. This is available on our website at www.scottishspca.org/forallanimals and has been for almost 18 months.”
However, it leaves the nearest of its “bricks and mortar” centres 110 miles away in Inverness.
Mr McGillivray asked: “Are they expecting people to go down to Inverness to view animals or are they expecting to take the animals up to people so they can see them? It brings stress on the animals and it basically excludes people in rural areas from fostering and being part of that process.”
Chief executive of the Scottish SPCA Kirsteen Campbell visited the centre recently and invited the protesters in to speak to her. Mr McGillivray added: “We confronted her and said why didn’t you get this all up and running before closing the facility to prove that it worked in a rural area.”
He claimed that no maintenance had been done on the facility for years and that local staff had been refused access to some training.
“It leaves us with the feeling that this has been a long planned closure and it’s been done by nefarious means,” he said. “It came as a shock to everyone and effectively we’re left now in a rural area with nothing.
“OK, so the animals have gone from Balmore, but we’re not done with our fight because it’s just been the wrong decision from the start.”
Asked if he believed there was hope for the centre to reopen under the SSPCA, he said: “The only way I can see them reversing the decision is if there is a management change at the top, and in light of her mismanagement of the project then the buck stops with her.”
An SSPCA spokesman said that the charity worked to a schedule of planned maintenance across all of its sites and that work at Balmore had been comparable with other sites, including upgrading the reception area at the same time as all other centres.
He added: “The people working in the centre have had access to the same training opportunities as colleagues in other centres and teams. All of our people have access to the same opportunities to learn via a mix of online and face-to-face training.”
Recruitment for fostering opportunities would launch soon, the charity said, adding that a trial in the west of Scotland was so successful it had to temporarily stop accepting applications to allow for training of new recruits.
