Billy Linton, 65
I have been an inspector with the Scottish SPCA, the animal welfare charity, in Glasgow for 13 years. Before that, I spent 37 years as a keeper working with exotic animals at Glasgow Zoo, including lions, tigers and elephants.
The animals at the zoo were all in great condition and, when it closed, they were alll re-homed with the exception of one bear, who a vet said could not withstand the travel. I grew up in Baillieston and joined the zoo straight from school and I was the last one to shut the gate on the last day, which was very emotional.
The mission of our job as inspectors with the Scottish SPCA is to prevent cruelty to animals and promote kindness and humanity in their treatment. Education is a big thing for us – we go into schools and do talks there every day during term time. I mostly cover Glasgow, but also occasionally Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Lanarkshire.
Animal cruelty and neglect is a difficult subject and you could debate it forever. There are many causes: sometimes it can be a fall-out between partners and one person might do something to another’s pet. People can also be deliberately nasty to an animal, whether it’s psychopathic or they get some kind of pleasure out of it. It can also be someone who has trouble looking after themselves financially – there can also be mental health issues and learning difficulties. Neglect can be about poverty but not always – you get rich people neglecting their animals as well.
Most of our cases are tip-offs from the public. If you see something in your daily life that doesn’t look right, lift the phone and we will go and take a look, although I think the state of animal welfare in Britain generally is quite healthy.
Sometimes an overweight animal can be more unhealthy than an underweight animal – it can suffer the same as an overweight human. You can usually tell if a dog is rotund especially if it’s short-haired – they can have difficulty moving and they’re panting. The owner can think they are not doing any harm and that’s where the education comes in. It’s cruelty through kindness.
I have never been physically hit on a job but I have been threatened. A colleague and I went into a house in Glasgow once. One of the things we’re told in our training is always keep your back to the door so you can get out – this man told his wife to lock the front door and he went and got an axe. I managed to bring the situation down by talking to him. It was close, but a gentle manner helps – if you raise your voice, you’ve lost the argument.
My work can be upsetting and you definitely do see the serious side of life when you’re at work. I see that some days. For example, a couple a months ago I went into a house that had been abandoned – the place was knee deep in rubbish and faeces and the dog, a Staffi cross was seriously friendly. It had no food and had been drinking out of the toilet. If I could have found the owner, that would have been a cruelty case. Abandonments is something we get regularly, but the dog is hunky-dory now.
Being an inspector is a fantastic job on the whole – sometimes you can be out from first thing in the morning until late at night. I’m now at retirement age but my intention is to carry on as long as I’m cutting the mustard and doing the job effectively.
Scottish Animal Week is from September 4-10. Visit www.scottishspca.org/events/scottish-animal-week
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here