IN response to the letter “It’s not really animal magic” (Gazette, July 16) the RSPCA would like to thank the writer for their dedication to animal welfare and for their support.

It is only with the help of the public that we can enforce disqualification orders given by the courts and we do appreciate the information gathered and reported by the writer in this case.

An inspector has now been in touch with the caller and will look into this as soon as possible.

We are very sorry that there was a delay in responding to the caller. The RSPCA has just over 330 inspectors covering the whole of England and Wales.

This roughly equates to one inspector for every 110,000 people which means that they have to prioritise and are not always able to get back to callers as quickly as they would want to.

Disqualification orders are a vital part of preventing animal cruelty and both the RSPCA and police can enforce those orders so that they are made as effective as possible. In fact, the RSPCA successfully prosecuted 93 people for breaching disqualification orders in 2013.

Again, we rely on the public to let us know if they know of anyone keeping animals while disqualified and ask them to phone us on 0300 1234 999.

Sophie Wilkinson, RSPCA regional media manager