The National Police Chiefs Council has submitted a parliamentary submission to remove the ability of the RSPCA to prosecute animal welfare breaches.
The Council intends to raise the possibility to establish a statutory body funded by government to undertake this work.
Currently, the animal protection charity carries out 80 per cent of all animal cruelty cases.
The submission said: "For some considerable time the RSPCA have assumed the default role of prosecutor for offences under the Act and have done so outside of a statutory framework with no powers.
"Their long standing good work and expertise in this area should of course be recognised but it ought to be right that the primary enforcer with responsibility for this area should be a single agency, preferably a statutory body funded by Government.
"With this would come greater governance and accountability along with a right to review prosecution decisions in line all other criminal offences.
"There is a well evidenced link between fatal dog attacks and animal welfare along with growing research to suggest that animal cruelty can be linked to domestic abuse."
Removal of 'unacceptable political campaigns'
Union’s Senior Policy Officer Dr Hazel Wright of the Farmers' Union of Wales commented: "The FUW believes that the move would foster greater accountability and would remove the unacceptable and dangerous conflict of interest between many of the RSPCA’s political campaigns and its non-statutory role in animal welfare prosecutions,"
The various conflicting roles of the RSPCA – as a lobby organisation, fundraiser and prosecutor – have been raised by the FUW in the past.
The Union has previously called for decisive action to be taken by the Charity Commission in relation to the RSPCA’s lobbying actions, which FUW has described as "aggressive and threatening".
"Over the past decade, the FUW has submitted numerous complaints to the Attorney General, Charity Commission and ASA regarding the RSPCA’s use of extreme and misleading rhetoric, warning that failure to take action would merely increase the organisation’s tendency towards militant action.
"The FUW would welcome involvement in the way in which animal welfare cases should be prosecuted in the future and has a dedicated Animal Health and Welfare Committee designed to shape policy on such issues," added Dr Wright.
