30 percent rise in calls about abandoned pets (Image: Getty)
The RSPCA has warned of a shocking rise in abandoned pets, many in desperate need of care.It has recorded a 30 percent rise in abandonment calls to its emergency line in just three years. It blames the crisis – owners unable to afford pet food and vet bills, soaring pet ownership and high numbers of ‘unsociable pandemic pups’ being rejected by owners because of complex behavioural problems.The animal rescue charity has released the new startling statistics, as part of its Join The Christmas Rescue campaign, to highlight the battle frontline rescuers face ahead of what is expected to be another bleak winter for thousands of animals.Its data shows the numbers of reported abandonments during 2020 stood at 16,118 reports. By 2023 this figure was up to 20,999. The RSPCA is projecting this figure will rise to 23,000 by the end of this year – a forty two percent increase in four years.
Abandoned dog in shelter waiting for adoption (Image: Getty)
It is now urging owners to research responsibly before buying a pet, and to seek early treatment to prevent chronic illnesses escalating.
Its figures come amid warnings from animal centres across England that they are struggling to stay afloat, due the costs of taking in rising numbers of abandoned – and sometimes sick – pets which are not being adopted.
Bristol Animal Rescue Centre, for example, says it has reached a “crisis” point after it has had to rescue almost 400 animals since January. Many of the pets require complex medical treatment or surgery, adding to their fees.
In one case two neglected puppies were barricaded in a filthy flat and left to die when their owners moved out and left them.
Jack and Poppy have now been rehomed after they were rescued from a filthy flat in Liverpool with no food and water and no one to care for them.
As well as locking the pups in the property where they were starving to death, an old fridge freezer had been placed over the front door in a crude attempt to apparently seal their fate.
A concerned member of the public raised the alarm and called the RSPCA in September last year.
With the help of Merseyside Police, rescuers managed to gain entry to the flat and were confronted by the shocking scene – with the two emaciated Staffordshire bull terrier-type puppies lying on a filthy mattress, along with their sibling who had sadly already died, surrounded by faeces, urine and flies.
The surroundings were strewn with empty food cans which had teeth marks on them from where the dogs had scavenged in a desperate attempt to survive.
Jack and Poppy were so weak they had to be carried from the flat and were rushed to the RSPCA’s Greater Manchester Animal Hospital for urgent veterinary treatment. The RSPCA said it was touch and go whether they would survive.
Animal shelters at “crisis point” (Image: Getty)