The UK’s largest animal welfare charity has issued an urgent plea following an “incredibly tough” summer
The RSPCA has issued an urgent plea to dog lovers following an “incredibly tough” summer. The animal welfare charity is asking adopters to come forward this September.
The plea comes as the charity says it is caring for a record number of dogs following several large-scale cruelty and neglect cases. An update on the RSPCA website said: “In July, the RSPCA had 1,646 dogs in its care – the highest number on record and more than double the number from July 2020.
“Of all the animals in RSPCA care, a third of these were dogs.” It adds that 445 dogs were rescued in July alone, compared to a five-year average of 245 per month.
The plea also said that because RSPCA centres are already full, almost half of those dogs are being cared for in private kennels. Not to mention, “all the other animals being housed at private boarding establishments due to lack of space”. The RSPCA says all this comes at a cost of more than £650,000 a month to the charity.
The RSPCA is the UK’s largest animal welfare charity, with over 400 animal rescuers, 1,500 employees, and nearly 7,000 volunteers. The charity hopes members of the pubic will come forward to help give rescued dogs a second chance and free up space.
Glenn Mayoll, Operations Manager at the RSPCA, said: “The summer is the busiest time of year for our frontline teams tackling cruelty and neglect – and on top of this, we’ve been called to help with several major incidents involving hundreds of dogs at once. It’s been so incredibly tough for our frontline teams trying to find spaces so we can bring hundreds of suffering dogs to safety.”
He added: “Our centres are full and we simply cannot keep up with demand. Our teams are working incredibly hard, under immense pressure, to protect the welfare of every dog in our care – and we’re calling on the public to help us by considering an RSPCA rescue dog.”
The RSPCA said it could not share details about recent large-scale incidents due to ongoing investigations; however, it said dogs in RSPCA care have been rescued from “heartbreaking situations of abuse, neglect or abandonment”, and some cannot be rehomed yet due to ongoing legal proceedings.
The charity is asking animal lovers to adopt a pet if they can or share rehoming profiles to help dogs find their new families. Glenn added: “We have all kinds of dogs that need loving new homes – from puppies to golden oldies, active dogs to couch potatoes, tiny pooches like Chihuahuas to big hounds like Belgian Shepherds and Cane Corsos – and everything in between.
“Some of our dogs may need extra special homes due to the suffering they have survived. But if anyone out there is looking to add a dog to their family, then we’d love to hear from them.”
To see all dogs available for adoption across the RSPCA’s centres, see the charity’s Find a Pet page.
