Does the UK provide better care than we do?

I had a shock this week believe me. My brother is very ill. He has cancer and can't even get out of a chair without help. His son, my nephew, rescued a small puppy from someone who was threatening to hit it over the head because it is deaf and blind in one eye. (I saw this little puppy when I was in the UK recently). His landlord said he could not keep the puppy so he left him at my brother's house and asked one of my other nephews to arrange to take him to a dog shelter in the area.
After calling everyone within a 50 mile radius and having no luck they called the RSPCA help line and asked if they could take the puppy somewhere. They explained the reasons why he could not stay at my brother's house. The man at the RSPCA said they would not take the puppy, they had a waiting list of 3 months and they may consider helping him after this time. My brother was obviously very upset. He had a carer with him and she telephoned them again and explained how poorly he was and said he could not cope with a puppy in the house. The man for the RSPCA said it was nothing to do with her and she should get off the line. He also said that if they couldn't cope with the puppy to take him to a Vet and get him to put him to sleep. In desperation my brother called the local Vet who said to bring the puppy in but he had to bring 60 pounds with him. My nephews took the puppy and the money and when the Vet saw the puppy he said he would try and find him a home but still took the money.
I know that Parc cannot take every puppy referred to us but if we can't we do usually get help from our wonderful dog shelter Paws.
I genuinely believed that the shelters in Britain would take in homeless puppies. I am so concerned about this kind of response. If it had not been a member of my family I probably would not have believed this. To say it is distressing is an understatement.
I like many of you watch these lovely TV documentaries where the RSPCA will spend hours pulling a chimney down to save a bird or catching and moving baby ducks etc. It never occurred to me that while they were doing this they were refusing to do the job that everyone expects them to do. Comments welcome!