Animal charity issues plea in wake of ‘busiest year’
The Scottish SPCA is urging people to be there for animals after experienceing its busiest year ever.
Scotland’s national animal welfare charity has launched a new fundraising campaign following a huge increase in activity in 2021.
The SSPCA said it has seen unprecedented levels of demand on its services, responding to an average of over 235 reports of animals in need every single day last year. The charity has also experienced an increase in average days in care for all types of animals due to the impact of the Covid pandemic on animal cruelty prosecutions, meaning many of its nine rescue centres have been at capacity.
Many of those calls were due to the public’s increasing appetite for lockdown pups stretching the Society’s resources as they fought to tackle barbaric puppy trade practices, with over 200 puppies seized from low-welfare breeders since the beginning of 2020.
The Scottish SPCA has also seen an increase in calls from owners who are struggling to afford veterinary care and those struggling to cope with behavioural issues of animals purchased during lockdown.
The SSPCA does not put healthy animals to sleep so animals who come in to the centres with challenging behavioural or medical problems can be with them for months or even years while the team rehabilitate and care for them until the animal is ready to be rehomed or released back in to the wild.
One such animal was Daisy, a foxhound who was bred as part of the multi-million pound low- welfare puppy trade and advertised as a beagle online by dealers.
The sellers didn’t provide any pictures of her parents and delivered her straight to her unsuspecting new owners. When her new family took her to the vet they discovered she had false vaccination
records and an unregistered microchip. She also had kennel cough.
As Daisy grew it became clear she was not a beagle as advertised, and when the family couldn’t provide the space or stimulation a foxhound needs, they had to make the heart-breaking decision to give her up.
Daisy was sadly re-homed and returned twice to the Scottish SPCA’s Angus, Fife and Tayside Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre due to her behaviour.
However, after working hard to redirect her boisterous behaviour in an appropriate way, the SSPCA eventually found a loving ‘ forever home’ for the playful pup.
Dale Christie, assistant manager of the Angus, Fife and Tayside Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre, said: “The past two years have been a really challenging time for the team.
“Throughout the pandemic it has been business as usual here and we’ve been busier than ever. Last year we cared for 497 animals at our centre alone.
“We always do our best to help every animal, like Daisy, who comes in to our care and make sure they find the perfect home, no matter how long that process takes.
“We’re so grateful to all our supporters as we wouldn’t be able to do this work without them. We’d be so grateful for anything people can spare and we know the animals in our care will be too.”
To find out more about the campaign and donate to the Scottish SPCA, visit the website www.scottishspca.org.
Meanwhile, this week the charity announced it has been selected as BEAR Scotland’s national charity partner for 2022 after securing a third of the votes in an employee poll.
As well as taking part in fundraising events across the organisation, BEAR will have collection boxes for donations of crucial items, including food, bedding and toys.
Throughout the pandemic it has been business as usual here and we’ve been busier than ever. Last year, we cared for 497 animals here alone Dale Smart, SSPCA