As the cost of living continues to rise, animals are also suffering
It’s been described by the RSPCA as the ‘perfect storm’ as more and more pets get dumped and abandoned by people struggling to put food on the table and keep roofs over their heads.
As the ongoing cost of living crisis continues to grip the UK – with fixed-rate mortgage deals for another 1.5m homeowners set to expire during 2024* – incidents of animal abandonment are currently at a three-year high, according to the RSPCA, and the charity says they have serious concerns about the welfare of these animals as the numbers continue to grow.
A 32.9% rise in abandonment cases it’s now anticipating is being compounded by the increase in pet ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic, with so many of us now having to return to the office.
With the everyday stresses and strains of life taking their toll on pet owners, our furry friends can slip to the bottom of the pile when it comes to priorities.
Woman’s Own investigates the devastating impact that abandonment has on pets…
for a foster for him to prevent him being put to sleep, and when I brought him home, he didn’t trust me at all – and who could blame him? Not only had he lost his leg and been through a terrifying ordeal, he’d lost his owners, too. Hiding away inside his scratching post, he stopped eating. Every noise around the house would make him cower.
TRAUMATIC TIME
In time, he came round, but it was clear that he missed his owners.
Separation anxiety can be even worse in dogs, who are devoted to their owners, even when they haven’t been treated well by them. Once they finally stop looking for their humans and realise they’re not coming back for them, they go through a grieving process and it’s awful to see. After all, dogs have the emotions of a small toddler, so of course they feel emotional pain, just like we do.
One of my dogs, Shadow, a German Shepherd, first came to me underweight and malnourished in 2012. She’d been left in an outdoor kennel all day while her owners just ignored her and then eventually she was abandoned.
When I took her home, she’d pace the floor for hours, looking up expectantly every time someone came through the front door.
It was six months before I could leave her – even to pop to the shops – without her howling and crying, or rip
