Fears over dogs being given up

ANIMAL charities are concerned that there will be a surge in dogs being given up as coronavirus restrictions ease.

Dogs Trust says there is an “historic trend” of it happening as the rules start to relax and Wales comes out of lockdown, with the latest rule change taking place on Saturday.

Hope Rescue Centre in Rhondda Cynon Taf said demand for its dogs had increased fivefold with the pandemic.

Dogs Trust’s operations director Adam Clowes says lockdown provided an opportunity for people to get dogs as they spent more time at home. But he said that as the UK had come out of previous lockdowns, there had started to be an increase in people giving up their dogs.

Mr Clowes told BBC Wales: “We know there’s a historic trend for people having to give up their dogs through hard times, it’s just we’ve not hit that hard time yet, because we’ve had several false starts coming out of lockdown. But we’ve got some worrying trends that we’ve seen already.”

The charity said behaviour issues were the primary reason for dogs being given up and that lockdown may have exacerbated these, due to lack of socialisation and puppy classes.

Dogs Trust is running online training classes to help owners prepare dogs for changes and prevent behavioural issues as lockdown restrictions ease.

Hope Rescue Centre’s welfare and adoption head, Sara Rosser, said applications had increased from an average of 1,000 each year to 5,000 in 2020, while the number of dogs available to be rehomed had halved.

“What we’re now seeing happening is that often if someone isn’t coping with a dog, they then choose to sell it on because the demand is so high,” Ms Rosser said.

“If the dog has a behaviour or a medical problem, and that isn’t treated, those problems get exacerbated and by the time that dog then reaches us we’ve got a lot of work to do to prepare that dog to be rehomed.”