Animal shelter sees rise in pets given up post lockdown
An animal rescue shelter in Devon has seen an increase in pets being brought in since the easing of the coronavirus lockdown.
Workers at Animals in Distress in Ipplepen, near Newton Abbot, say owners have been giving their dogs and rabbits to the shelter as they realise they can no longer look after them.
With the return of work and routines, many dogs have been struggling at home on their own.
Also, many people are now finding they have financial difficulties that they didn't have at the start or before the coronavirus pandemic.
Rowana Rowan from Animals in Distress said, "As life goes back to some kind of normal, people are finding that they can't anymore take care of the pets that they got at the beginning of the year.
"And also people are unfortunately because of Covid-19 people are losing their jobs, having to move house, having relationship breakups, so we are getting more and more animals come in.
New research, released this week by the Kennel Club as part of its #BePuppywise campaign, shows 14 per cent of dog owners in the South West said the main reason for getting their puppy was to have a lockdown companion.
They said their new canine was to help them and their family, and 19 per cent said it was because they were spending more time at home than usual.
Workers at Animals in Distress say they would never judge pet owners and would rather people bring their animals to the shelter instead of abandoning them.
Any pet that is given to the shelter is matched with a potential new owner who will adopt the animal and give it a new loving home.
Animal welfare assistant Liz Morgan said, "We're not judging anybody, we would rather people brought their dogs in, explained their situation, gave us all their history so that we can find them the right home.
Rather than people kind of feeling that they can't come somewhere like here and feeling like their only option is to abandon the animals."