Dog rescue shelters feel the bite this winter.
The RSPCA has said that the increase in demand for pets over lockdown coupled with rising costs of living has led to a three year high of animal abandonment. There have been 207 reports of animals being abandoned so far this year in Coventry and Warwickshire during what the charity is calling a “winter crisis”.
On average vet bills have gone up by 12% and the cost of pet food has risen by 58% in some cases. This coupled with other rising costs has created a climate where pet owners can no longer afford to keep their beloved animals.
The Head of RSPCA frontline rescue teams, Dermot Murphy said: “Abandonment calls to our emergency line are now at a three-year high, as we respond to an increasing number of animals being given up and dumped.
“Behind these shocking statistics are thousands of vulnerable animals. Each one is a valuable life in urgent need of our help. We’re desperately concerned about the coming winter months in Warwickshire. Abandonments have soared and many rescue centres are full to bursting, so we are facing an unprecedented winter crisis.”
And it’s not just pet owners who are struggling to cope with rising costs, Jannette Heritage, who runs a non-profit dog rescue in Radford, Coventry says her vet bills have gone up 30% “My Vet bill for this year is £14,000, I sometimes look back and think where did I get that money from.”
Jannette is now retired and relies on money from fundraising to keep her dog rescue open, “I don’t make a penny from the rescue, all the money goes back into the dogs. At the moment I’m working at a loss; we never make a profit.”
The 2023 PDSA report found that most veterinarians had seen a significant rise in the number of their clients struggling to afford vets bills. 52% of vets say that more clients are delaying bringing in their pets when ill and 56% of vets say that more clients are not able to afford unexpected vet costs. Veterinarians also said they had seen more people cancelling the pet insurance plans.
Fi Harrison, Head of Fundraising & Communications at Birmingham Dogs Home says they have seen a 48% rise in the number of dogs they are taking in compared to last year but are struggling to rehome them.
Ms Harrison said: “The number of people enquiring to rehome and adopt a dog has significantly dropped this year, meaning many of the dogs are being looked after by the charity for much longer than normal.”
Birmingham Dogs Home which, celebrated its 130th anniversary last year had to close it’s the centre for a number of weeks in 2022 after an outbreak of canine parvovirus, a highly contagious disease that can be fatal to dogs. The charity said the outbreak was caused by an increase in the number of unvaccinated strays they were receiving. Several reports suggest that people are no longer vaccinating their pets past early age because of the cost.
And it’s not just dogs homes that are struggling with higher demand. A report from the Cats Protection Trust showed that cats being given up for financial reasons had risen by 48% whilst the amount being adopted had gone down. The report also found that 34% of cat owners had been significantly and negatively impacted by the rise in living costs.
The recent controversial ban on American XL Bully dogs has also led to a rise in pet abandonment as new government legislation comes in that makes it costly for owners to keep the breed. From 31 December it will be illegal to sell, transfer, exchange or gift an XL Bully meaning rescue centres will have to put down any of these dogs in their care after this time.
Ms Heritage said that immediately after the ban was announced she saw a spike in the breed being abandoned, “At the moment it’s all the American XL Bullies that are being abandoned. I can’t take them in because at the end of December I will have to put them down, and the thought of doing that would kill me.”
Adding: “As soon they put the dog ban in place it was like a death sentence, and there are some beautiful Bullys out there but there are one or two bad breeders who bread the dogs for bad temperament.”
Ahead of what the RSPCA is expecting to be one of the worst winters for dog abandonment they have launched the Christmas Rescue, raising money to fund the work of their rescue teams over the season.
Birmingham Dogs Home has also opened a Christmas appeal which you can donate to through this link: Christmas Wishes to Fill Dishes.
To report a stray contact the Coventry Dog Warden