While the RSPCA has taken in more bunnies, cats, and dogs than last year, the Dogs Trust has received a record number of “handover” calls from worried dog owners who fear they cannot afford to keep their pets.
According to welfare charities, pet owners are becoming more and more unable to afford their pets as the cost of living crisis bites.
This year, the Pets Trust has fielded 15,000 inquiries from owners who want to know how to surrender their dogs for adoption.
The amount is the biggest it has ever been since the charity’s contact center started in 2014 and is up 54% from this year.
The RSPCA received 49% more rabbits, 14% more cats, and 3% more dogs in the first five months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. According to its research, cat owners are the ones most affected by and concerned about the rising expense of living.
Speaking with families “forced to make terrible choices because of their financial conditions,” Dogs Trust CEO Owen Sharp said.
Even a woman who felt she had no choice but to give up the family dog called them, he claimed, “distraught because she felt she had no alternative but to give up the family dog; she was facing a decision between feeding him or her children.”
Costs of things like pet food have increased following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which fuelled inflation in the UK that could rise to 13%.