A Welsh dog rescue centre has revealed they are under more pressure than ever just after another one of their heart-breaking rescues. Hope Rescue centre, which takes in dogs from six local authorities in south Wales, was called out to a case where two puppies had been abandoned in a Bridgend garden on November 4.
Rescuers were called after a resident spotted them in their back garden at 4am, but it turned out that one had already died. A post mortem is being done to establish the direct cause of her death as it is not yet known how long the eight-week old pups were fending for themselves.
The family who found the puppy who survived the ordeal named her Chocolate. But while Chocolate managed to pull through it comes at a time when lots of other dogs are being abandoned in the area leaving the Pontyclun rescue having to turn people away.
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The centre has gone from 67 surrender calls in April to 119 in September, with people phoning to give their dogs up. Laura Hallismith from the charity said: "It's pretty awful when we can't take a dog in and it's not uncommon to take 10 to 15 calls a day.
"It does take its toll emotionally for the people answering the calls. Working in a rescue hardens you all the time, and it's relentless at the moment so everyone has to kind of dig deep." The problem is also UK widespread, with pet abandonment at an all time high.
One of the trends which the rescue has picked up on is that they are getting more calls about people who have died and their dogs needing to be re-homed than usual, as well as people calling to surrender their dogs due to the pressures of the cost of living crisis.
Laura said: "Someone did ring up the other day saying that she was dying so had to give up her dog which was especially heart-breaking."
While facing the challenge of more dogs coming in, the rescue centre is also undergoing financial struggles of their own with rising energy bills and fuel costs impacting their budget. They are now also having to promote three fundraisers on their page every week in order to stay afloat. Laura added: "The numbers are increasing so much that it doesn't feel like there's an option not to fundraise."
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