Are soaring bill issues impacting on your pets?
It’s official - the UK loves animals, writes Fiona Evans. But will this affection be enough to carry our furry friends through the cost of living crisis?
Buster’s journey to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was neither rare nor fuelled by neglect.
The five-year-old French bulldog was taken in by the charity when his owners could no longer cover the costs of his medical needs.
Facing expensive surgery to widen his narrow nostrils and remove excess tissue that obstructs his airways, his recovery will herald the start of the search for a new home.
With the cost of living rocketing, people are pulling in their belts amid soaring energy bills and rising food and petrol prices.
All this is having an impact on the animals who share our homes - and the gravity of the consequences is stark.
Research by the RSPCA in partnership with the Scottish SPCA, which was released in June, cited the increasing cost of living as a risk to animal welfare, making people less able to provide for their pets.
Based on a YouGov survey of more than 4,000 UK adults, the Animal Kindness Index, found that animal welfare is one of the top most important social issues people were asked about.
It revealed that 69 per cent of the public describe themselves as ‘animal-lovers’ and that 75 per cent of people said they’d carried out an act of kindness for animals in the past 12 months.
However, the report also found that the rising cost of living and the cost of pet ownership could threaten our love for our pets, with 78 per cent of pet owners saying they think the cost of living will impact their animals.
Sixty-eight per cent expressed concern that the cost of care was increasing, and alarmingly, almost a fifth worried about how they will afford to feed their pets.
At the time the index was published, Emma Slawinski, director of advocacy and policy at the RSPCA, said:
“It’s great that our research has confirmed we are a nation of animal lovers, however we cannot ignore the stark suggestion that the cost of living crisis is the biggest single threat to pets in the UK today.
“We are on the brink of an animal welfare crisis due to the rise in pet ownership during the pandemic, coupled with the cost of living pressures biting - especially those on lower incomes. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.
“We’re starting to see the knock-on effects of this as we, and other charities, predicted. Tragically we’re starting to see an increase in the abandonment of pets and growing numbers of cats and rabbits being rescued and coming into our care.
“It’s worrying to see that 33 per cent of pet owners have experienced issues they did not expect with their pets and, sadly, we are now seeing an increase in pets coming into our care, many because owners are struggling to afford to pay for behavioural support, vet care or even to feed their pets. “The RSPCA and the Scottish SPCA prioritise animals most in need of neglect and cruelty and would urge any pet owners struggling to seek help to address problems at the earliest opportunity so that problems do not spiral out of control.”
In the first five months of 2022, the RSPCA took in 49 per cent more rabbits, 14 per cent more cats and three per cent more dogs than the same period in 2021.
The Scottish SPCA has seen a 12 per cent rise in the number of rabbits coming into its care and a 15 per cent increase in the number of dogs being taken in.
Last year the RSPCA received 3,644 calls categorised as ‘help with vet bills’ - a growth of 12 per cent yearon-year.
This all comes at a time when rehoming has slowed, meaning that spaces are not
being freed up as quickly and animals are staying in care for longer.
“We have been lucky so far that we have not seen much of an impact on our services from the cost of living crisis but we are under no illusions,” said Gilly Mendes Ferreira, head of innovation and strategic relations at the Scottish SPCA, speaking in June.
“We know Scotland is a nation of animal lovers and people will do their best to keep their animals with them, even in the toughest of times. However, we fully expect to see a rise in pet owners who are unable to care for their animals or afford veterinary bills in the coming months due to rising costs.
“We have seen an increase in rabbits coming into our care and being abandoned. We are concerned that this may have been a knock-on effect from lockdown where people have taken on what they believed to be an ‘easy’ pet compared to a dog or cat and are now struggling with the reality of caring for quite a complex animal.”