Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Reform Group | 493 areas of abuse, and revived the Society’s campaigning function, which had been allowed to lapse since the Edwardian era Publicity, parliamentary, and scientific facilities were established, and the Society even gave its support to Douglas, Lord Houghton’s successful initiative, the General Election Coordinating Committee for Animal Welfare, to persuade all major British political parties to include officially, for the first time, animal welfare policies in their election platforms in 1979 Before the end of Ryder’s first term of office, which was followed by a temporary reversal of the Society’s performance initiated by conservatives, an undercover plainclothes section of the RSPCA’s Inspectorate was also established and perhaps most important, the Society initiated the establishment and funding of a powerful political lobby for animals in the European Community, subsequently to be named Eurogroup for Animal Welfare In 1906, pro-foxhunting members had changed the constitution of the Society’s ruling Council so as to bring in rural representatives, thus strengthening their position Tensions persist to this day between, on the one hand, the nationally and internationally-minded campaigners and, on the other, the dogs and cats rural conservatives During the 1990s, some five thousand pro-foxhunting people infiltrated the Society in a vain attempt to prevent the banning of hunting with hounds by the Labour government in 2004 The modernists continued to resist this attempted takeover of the RSPCA and, with the support of the High Court, several hundred members were ejected Supported by the RSPCA, much new European and British legislation has been passed, culminating in the Animal Welfare Act of 2006, which marked the end of an era Further Reading Ryder, Richard D 2000 Animal revolution: Changing attitudes towards speciesism Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.; rev ed Berg Richard D Ryder