FAMILIES are in danger of losing their dogs to the cost-of-living crisis this winter, the UK’s leading dog welfare charity has warned – as it reveals its Warwickshire rehoming centre is under increasing pressure.
Dogs Trust – which runs a rehoming centre in Kenilworth – says it is receiving unprecedented numbers of enquiries from desperate dog owners who feel they’ve run out of options.
In August, the charity received a record 5,000 calls from people asking it to take in their dogs – a 14 per cent increase on the previous month, and a 26 per cent increase from August 2021.
And in Dogs Trust’s September poll of the UK’s dog owners showed 40 per cent of respondents in the West Midlands thought they would find it more difficult to give their dog all they needed, compared to before the cost of living crisis began.
Vet bills continued to cause the most worry, with 53 per cent of West Midlands dog owners citing vet bills as their biggest financial canine concern for the coming year. And almost six out of ten non-dog owners said the rising cost of living would prevent them from adopting or buying a dog.
Dogs Trust CEO Owen Sharp said: “Dogs Trust has been receiving a shocking and unprecedented number of calls from dog owners asking us to take in their dogs because they feel they won’t be able to see them through this crisis.
“Over the last month, we received on average 17 handover calls an hour from desperate owners feeling they’ve run out of options.
“Combine this with the fact that 59 per cent of people in the West Midlands told us, in our new cost of living poll, that they wouldn’t be prepared to take on a dog right now, and it’s clear to see we’re about to have a serious animal welfare issue on our hands.”
Dogs Trust is urgently seeking help for the dogs who will feel the impact, and is appealing to people to adopt dogs which are more difficult to rehome – such as big dogs, un-housetrained dogs, and dogs with challenging behaviour.
Visit www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/fostering for more information.
