An animal charity in Co Tyrone has said it is experiencing unprecedented demand as it sees high numbers of pets returned by families who cannot care for them.
The Grovehill Animal Trust in Omagh says it has been inundated with calls from distressed owners, many of whom got their cats and dogs during lockdown. With many people now returning to work full-time, the charity says people have less time to look after their pets.
Janice Porter from the charity says in almost two decades helping animals locally she has never been as busy. The charity is receiving as many as 50 calls on a daily basis.
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“We will be going 20 years in October and right now it just seems to be the craziest time with the amount of calls we are getting,” Janice told MyTyrone.
“It has just been really tough recently on our staff and volunteers and it feels like there is no end in sight. As soon as we put the phone down there is another call.
“We are getting more and more dogs in with behavioural problems as many of them haven’t been properly socialised.
“What some people don’t realise is that a pup is for life, not just for lockdown. Unfortunately it seems many people got pups without realising it is a lifelong commitment.”
Janice added that another major problem is the number of cats that need to be rehomed, with a large number of cats locally not being spayed or neutered.
“We are completely choc-a-bloc at the minute. We have room for around 30 cats here and as soon as one goes out another one comes back in again.
“There is now a long waiting list and we just don’t have the capacity to be able to deal with all the animals coming in.
“For one reason or another people just weren’t getting their cats spayed or neutered in the last number of years and it is having a huge knock on impact.”
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