In response to various media articles regarding a caricature soft toy version of Julia Gillard sold in our World for Pets store.
"It certainly was never our intention to harm anyone including Julia Gillard (In fact she was photographed with the doll at the time) and these dolls were part of a range a long time before the now famous misogyny debate. We are disappointed the journalist involved did not try to telephone us before print, with only a text to our media manager."
"This doll was from a range of soft toys sold over five years ago in a variety of stores all over Australia. They were based on caricatures by a cartoonist and there were also Tony Abbott and Kim Beasley dolls as well. In fact there were numerous other dolls as including maroon and blue dolls to coincide with State of Origin."
"We only ever had Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard dolls and they were not displayed in the dog toy section. The Tony Abbott versions sold out a few years back and a well-meaning volunteer discovered the left over Julia Gillard dolls in the warehouse. These have never been advertised online and they were only recently placed on sale again."
"They have since been removed as by only having the Julia dolls left on the shelf it looks like as though we are being political, when in fact the RSPCA always had been and always will remain apolitical. The only reason that the Julia Gillard doll remained was that the other dolls had sold out." Michael Beatty, Media Spokesperson for RSPCA Queensland.
