Animal rescue centres in Merseyside warned the country is "in the middle of an animal welfare crisis" as people struggle to care for "lockdown pets".
Nancy Lindsay, founder of Garston Animal Rescue, cried as she said "someone dumped a dying kitten on the doorstep in a carrier bag". Whoever left it "didn't even knock", leaving Nancy to find the "horrible" sight she initially thought was a donation of food. And that's not an isolated incident, with Nancy recently receiving a call from a veterinary practice caring for a cat that had been "flung over someone's garden fence" in a pet carrier.
The animal rescue worker described her emotions as "a pendulum swinging between absolute despair and anger at the irresponsibility of the sort of people who do dumping". She said: "You never know what people are going to do when they've got an animal that they don't want that they've fallen out of love with."
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She founded Garston Animal Rescue in 1984, but now they have "great difficulty" dealing with a rising demand for help from animal rescue centres. Nancy said: "You would expect it to have reduced somewhat, but in actual fact, it hasn't. It seems to have got worse if anything."
In April, the ECHO reported on two bulldogs abandoned and tied to a bush near Freshfields Animal Rescue in Sefton, with the centre rehoming one of them. Debbie Hughes from Freshfields, which was already at capacity before lockdown, said some of the increase in such cases is "due to lockdown pets".
Just a year into the pandemic, the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association said households had bought 3.2m pets during lockdown, the BBC reports. At the time, the association said "introducing a pet to a household in covid times can have repercussions or create some unexpected difficulties", and the RSPCA warned the rise in pet ownership could lead to a crisis once covid restrictions were lifted.
According to Debbie, "we are in the middle of an animal welfare crisis" now owners have returned to work, costs are piling up, and problems stemming from a lack of socialisation during lockdown are emerging. She said: "Things are really hard in some of the most economically deprived areas in our community, and I think people who are very kind and want to keep their animals have just been shocked by the utility bills going up and by the cost of living in general."
Steph Taylor, from Rescue Me in Melling, agrees, saying "it's hell at the moment" for the "close-knit community" of animal rescue centres and volunteers. The 38-year-old said: "People have realised the cost of pets, or that they don't actually suit their lives now that their lives have gone back to normal."
To stem the tide of pets being given away or abandoned, and to reduce the numbers being born, Rescue Me runs a cat neuter scheme to help people struggling to find vet appointments or to pay full cost at the vets. But animal rescue teams are also struggling with the rising cost of living, with Steph saying they're "being asked to do more work with fewer resources".
They've got to pay for the space and resources to keep animals safe, along with the steep bills for healthcare and neutering, particularly for abandoned animals. Each day, Rescue Me gets 10 to 15 requests for help rehoming rabbits, but Steph said they have to turn down 99% of requests because rabbits require too much space and money, which the centre doesn't have.
Roughly £5,000 was recently raised for Freshfields in a charity abseil down Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, but even this isn't enough to keep up with demand. Debbie said: "We're seeing the pressure, and it takes its toll. Our volunteers are brilliant and they've seen us through some difficult times before, but it's absolutely heartbreaking for them. The need at the minute feels so high and we want to help every desperate animal, but our services are under strain like never before."
Steph and Nancy blame the demand they're currently facing on the for-profit market where people buy puppies, kittens or bunnies from breeders, who are "breeding them faster than we can rescue them", according to Steph. Nancy said "all [pet owners] bargained for is a cute little fluffball", not a grown animal that urinates to mark its territory, particularly if it hasn't been neutered.
Nancy said: "Some owners get really angry and they chuck them out, and that leads to the problem of cats giving birth in back alleys. A lot of the kittens who are the progeny of all this have no human handling, so they grow up feral, and no one's going to adopt them."
Despite being asked to take in a litter of 11-week-old puppies one day, and a litter of 15-week-olds another, due to being at capacity, Rescue Me is having to focus only on unclaimed strays found sick on streets. This means they have to direct people wanting to give away their pets to other rescue centres. Steph said: "If someone's neighbour passes away with an older cat, there isn't space for it because our cat pens have got kittens with flu, so it would actually be dangerous to bring in an older cat."
Neutering "is a massive, massive issue" for Freshfields, with Debbie warning there could be a boom in the country's feral cat population if people don't get their cats neutered and keep giving away unwanted litters. She said: "[Neutering] will take pressure off. It will take a while to permeate, but that's one way in which you can really help us."
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