This article was published in the daily newspaper The Hounslow Guardian, UK, on Friday, May 2, 2003.
From The Hounslow Guardian
The oddest case dealt with so far by the new head of the RSPCA's team of animal welfare officers in south west London was a butchered cow in Osterley Park.
Until his promotion, Mark Buggie, 35, was an RSPCA inspector and worked for eight years in Woolwich and five years in Brixton.
Before joining the RSPCA, he was in the army and worked as a search dog handler. He and his dog were mainly on Royal duties, hunting out explosives and drugs.
Mr Buggie, who lives in Upper Norwood, said: "When I left the army it seemed a natural progression to join the RSPCA as it is the leading organisation, working with animals which had a career structure."
Mark is married to Jade who works at the RSPCA's call centre. The couple have a seven-year-old daughter Emily and a four-year-old son Alexander.
In his new role Mark will be in charge of seven inspectors and ten ambulance drivers.
He said: "I am delighted with my new role and I am really looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead. We have an excellent team and I hope to continue and build on the high standard of service we provide to animals and residents."
Mr Buggie revealed that the team is currently very busy. He said: "It goes in fits and starts but currently we are busy dealing with a spate of complaints about dogs left on balconies."
"Genuine cruelty cases are few and far between. We dealt with one last week where a man kicked a dog to death, but most cases are due to ignorance rather than cruelty. A lot of it is ignorance. People do not take their animals to the vet to get them treated and we also deal a lot with of care in the community people."
One of the oddest cases Mr Buggie has had to deal with was a cow butchered in Osterley Park.
He said: "It was absolutely bizarre. The cow had been butchered and all the meat taken, but whoever did it would have to have caught the cow, because it was not hand tamed, and then walk for at least two miles with the meat. It was just bizarre and looked as though the cow had been sucked up by UFOs, the meat stripped off and the carcass dropped down again."
