As the oldest animal welfare society in the world, the RSPCA is synonymous with campaigning against cruelty to animals. Founded in 1824 by William Wilberforce and others who had brought about the end of the slave trade, the RSPCA soon became supported by the great and the good, with Queen Victoria its patron.

Two hundred years later, we celebrate the RSPCA's achievement in putting cruelty at the heart of the nation's concerns, but we also ask about the challenges ahead. The intensive farming of animals is widely condemned, and the RSPCA's approach is to support 'welfare' schemes that inevitably endorses the mass killing of animals whilst aiming to improve their conditions whilst alive. But is that a realistic - or moral - position? Join us for a stimulating discussion with Chris Sherwood, the Chief Executive of the RSPCA.