Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) Livestock Group president, Chris Nixon, said "if we join the RSPCA, we could actually bring them back to the centre ground".

"There are a few of us kicking the idea around and it could turn into a bit of campaign."

The perceived lack of commonsense among animal liberation circles was highlighted by the recent Animals Australia claim that there was "virtually no data" supporting the view that introduced "naturalised" species, such as foxes, were having a significant impact on the Australian environment, Mr Nixon said.

Animals Australia removed these comments from its website’s Introduced Animals Fact Sheet page after the VFF said the stance showed they did not care about native Australian animals and supported protecting invasive pests such as foxes.

"If people aren’t prepared to get involved with these things then you will end up with these extreme views," Mr Nixon said.

Mr Nixon was not urging farmers to join Animals Australia.

"If we concentrate on one organisation - the RSPCA has credibility with the government still, and even within the RSPCA we are told that there is a realisation that they have moved too far to an extreme view."

If farmers did not seek to influence the attitude of the RSPCA on issues such as live export and pest animals, the "us and them" situation in animal welfare debates could continue, Mr Nixon said.

"We think we can get the RSPCA to take more of a moderate middle ground view. and it will be a win-win for all.

"We won’t have such a polarised debate, we will get good outcomes for animal welfare and farmers will protect their markets," he said.

"That’s the view we are taking."

Mr Nixon said he was going to the RSPCA’s 2011 annual general meeting as a guest in October.