THE Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was accused of being cruel to its staff over plans to axe 200 jobs in a £7.6m cost-cutting plan.

The animal charity is cutting its regional centres from ten to five and said it had been forced to act after a sharp fall in the value of its reserves caused by the Stock Market slump.

Talks over the restructuring started yesterday, but the Amicus union called on the society to reconsider its proposals.

"It is unacceptable that this type of restructuring should be pushed through without prior and meaningful consultation," said national officer Chris Ball.

"The RSPCA is an organisation that relies very heavily on its reputation as a caring organisation. These plans show contempt, not only for the workforce, but for the values that the RSPCA stands for."

Amicus said the charity was guilty of cruelty to its staff who were facing redundancy.

The RSPCA denied it was being cruel and said it was trying to minimise job losses by improving its operation's efficiency.

Director general Jackie Ballard said: "These decisions are never easy to make when people's livelihoods are involved, but in considering where savings should be made, trustees have decided that their first priority is to protect, as far as possible, the society's frontline work, particularly the uniformed inspectorate, animal collection and animal centre operations."

The job losses, mainly involving clerical and administration staff and will not take effect for several months.