492 | Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Reform Group at the hands of the genteel, the RSPCA and kindred organizations found it more difficult to prosecute or often even to acknowledge that a problem existed For this reason, such sports as steeplechasing, foxhunting and, indeed, hunting of all kinds, were subjects of contention within the mainstream Victorian humane movement The hardest case of all in these terms was posed by vivisection, an exclusively middle- and upper middle-class pursuit Although John Colam, then the Secretary of the RSPCA, offered strong testimony against the use of vivisection in teaching when he testified before a Royal Commission on vivisection in 1876, few of his constituents shared his strong views As a consequence, committed antivivisectionists withdrew from the mainstream humane movement and, for at least several generations, they languished while it prospered Further Reading Fairholme, Edward G., and Pain, Wellesley 1924 A century of work for animals: The history of the R.S.P.C.A., 1824–1924 New York: E P Dutton Kean, Hilda 1998 Animal rights: Political and social change in Britain since 1800 Chicago: University of Chicago Press Ritvo, Harriet 1987 The animal estate: The English and other creatures in the Victorian age Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Salt, Henry 1980 Animals’ rights in relation to social progress (1892; rpt.) Clark’s Summit, PA: Society for Animal Rights Shevelow, Kathryn 2008 For the love of animals: The rise of the animal protection movement New York: Henry Holt Thomas, Keith 1983 Man and the natural world: A history of the modern sensibility New York: Pantheon Turner, James 1980 Reckoning with the beast: Animals, pain, and humanity in the Victorian mind Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press Harriet Ritvo ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS (RSPCA) REFORM GROUP The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is the oldest, largest and most influential animal protection organization in the world, and so its vigor and radicalism or lack of same are of great importance for the whole movement internationally Frustrated by the ineffectiveness of the RSPCA in dealing with the modern cruelties of factory farming, animal experimentation, and the increasingly internationalized abuse of wildlife, some members of the RSPCA, led by Brian Seager, John Bryant, and Stanley Cover, formed the RSPCA Reform Group in 1970 They supported the attempt by Vera Sheppard to persuade the RSPCA to oppose foxhunting and other cruel sports, and succeeded in 1972 in securing the election to the RSPCA Council of five Reform Group supporters, including Bryant, Seager, Andrew Linzey, and Richard Ryder Over the next eight years, until the end of the decade, the Reform Group faction succeeded in changing the world’s oldest and largest animal welfare organization beyond recognition In 1976, Ryder was made Vice Chairman, and was then Chairman of the RSPCA Council from 1977 until 1979 During these years of reform, the Society not only came out against cruel sports but, for the first time, developed comprehensive animal welfare policies across the board, elevating the welfare of farm, laboratory, and wild animals to a priority status equal with the welfare of domestic species Against stiff opposition, the reformers set up expert staff departments to deal with these