In the early 1990s, recently retired Scottish SPCA’s Chief Superintendent Mike Flynn and his team broke up the biggest organised dog fight the UK had ever seen at a derelict farm in Kennoway, Fife.
“There were only a handful of Scottish people at the event and the rest came from all parts of the UK,” he tells me.
“It was one of the largest operations we have ever been involved in and we had around 100 police officers assisting on the day, which kicked off at seven on a Sunday morning.”
He says the operation resulted in 31 arrests and 31 convictions.
“It’s not a nice story but a successful one and a great example of joint working with the police.”
The dog fight bust is only one of the many operations that Mike has been involved with during his time with the SSPCA.
The Fife-based Chief Superintendent stood down in September, turning 65 and realising the moment had come to step away.
Such is Flynn’s honest, open nature. You won’t hear him philosophising or spinning grand tales about himself. Yet behind the calm, humble exterior is a hard-working and passionate man who dedicated 37 years of his life to the Scottish SPCA.
Who is Mike Flynn?
As Chief Superintendent, Mike was responsible for all uniformed Scottish SPCA officers. He consulted with the government on animal welfare policies and gave evidence when required in front of both Scottish and Westminster government committees.
Over his almost 40-year tenure with the Scottish SPCA, he has had a massive impact, writing the first inspector manual that was approved by the Crown Office and successfully campaigning for the charity to be given greater powers to support Police Scotland in stopping animal cruelty.
He also founded the charity’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU). That is a group of dedicated investigators who relentlessly hunt down Scotland’s most brutal animal abusers.
In 2006, he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 80th birthday honours lists for services to animal welfare in Scotland.
Why Mike believes even a dogfighter should be treated with respect
He leaves behind a remarkable legacy for his successors to live up to.
It was a lot of pressure for one man, so how did he maintain his famously stoic composure?
“You have to be professional at all times. The amount of people who say to me, ‘I couldn’t do your job, I’d end up hitting the person who hurt the animal’. As soon as you go down that road, you’ve lost the argument.
“You have to treat people with respect, even if it’s a badger baiter or a dogfighter. There’s no point losing your temper.
“In those moments, you have to know that being calm is for the greater good, and you must stick to your guns.”
From cafe owner to zookeeper to SSPCA
It seems simple, but not everyone has Mike’s gumption and stamina to work for years towards meaningful change.
We can surprise ourselves though – animal activism was not exactly on the cards for him as a young man.
“I actually had a café, believe it or not, in Portobello, for the summer months. It was just a seasonal thing, and we closed in September 1978, fully intending to open it back up the following March.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll be a postman or something for the next six months’, but then I saw a job come up for a zookeeper at Edinburgh Zoo.”
Mike applied for it, got it and stayed there for seven and a half years.
“I just absolutely loved it.”
Mike was responsible for some of the biggest animals in the zoo. His beat included hippos, giraffes and even Dali, the Indian elephant.
“In the legal sense of things, it doesn’t matter if it’s an elephant at a zoo or a cat in a house,” he explains.
“The legal requirements are the same – they need food, water, shelter and care. If someone has control over an animal, they legally must care for them, be it feeding them properly or getting them the appropriate vet treatment, and that’s where the Scottish SPCA comes in.”
What drew Mike to the SSPCA?
When a job came up at the SSPCA, it was a natural fit. He started off driving a horse ambulance and quickly moved his way up the ranks.
While he has encountered some terrible sights over the years, there have been lighter moments too.
“We used to be on call 24 hours a day, and once at four in the morning a drunk guy phoned me to say he had just seen an ostrich with a limp walking down the street.
“I thought it must be a wind-up but I went down and right enough, there was an ostrich there.
“It was being delivered from a farm in the north to the Borders and had fallen off the back of the wagon and hurt its leg.
“So the guy wasn’t as drunk as I thought.”
How much for the crocodile pal?
Then there was Jimmy the crocodile, who came into the Scottish SPCA’s care in 2004 after SIU busted a man trying to sell the five-foot croc out the back of his car.
It turned out the man had been keeping Jimmy in a bath in a Leith high-rise. He had been feeding him dead rats as food.
Mike and his team had a hard job rehoming Jimmy, but eventually found a place for him in a crocodile park in Torremolinos, Spain.
“To my knowledge, he still lives there. They still have the front cover of the newspaper on his enclosure – ‘Jimmy from Edinburgh!’”
Why a new Disney movie can provoke SSPCA panic
While Jimmy’s story had a happy ending, Mike is quick to point out that even the silliest stories have a dark underbelly.
“What type of life did the poor thing have, being pulled from pillar to post like that? People follow fashions when it comes to animals.
“The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles caused us a hell of a problem. We received turtles in their hundreds when they were popular.
“We panic every time a new Disney movie comes out with a cute animal in it.”
What work is Mike Flynn most proud of?
For the past 10 years, Mike and the Scottish SPCA have been campaigning for an outright ban on the use of all snares.
These contraptions are set up as ‘pest control’ but are indiscriminate and cruel, often leaving animals mangled and exposed to the elements for days on end, with the creatures often dying of starvation or dehydration before anyone can free them.
In March this year, snares were finally outlawed in Scotland.
“It’s the icing on the cake of what’s been a brilliant career. We’ve all worked so hard to bring it to fruition.
“Animals are like children – people need to look after them. It’s about giving a voice to the voiceless.
“I’ve always been on the side of the underdog – pardon the pun.”
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