A CHARITY urgently needs foster homes for abandoned dogs after 23 were taken in within just seven days.

Pendle Dogs in Need (PDiN) has been overwhelmed by the sheer number of abandoned pets picked up by wardens, with seven caught in Blackburn and 16 in Burnley.

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More than 30,000 homeless dogs are sent to ‘rescue’ every year to be rehomed nationally but more than 7,000 of them are put down.

But PDiN, based in Colne, said it was proud it has very few dogs put down.

Paula Knowles, from the Burnley Road centre, which relies on fundraising, said: “We have never had an influx like we have had this week.

“We desperately need dog and child-free foster homes, so we can assess and treat these dogs and move them into forever homes.

“We have some fantastic homes waiting for dogs but, unless we have the foster homes to assess these dogs, we can’t get them out and they are at real risk of being put to sleep in the pound.

“Normally it’s two to three dogs a week but at the moment it is 23.

“They have to stay in for seven days and we are working to get them out. Some have gone to Cambridge and some to Scotland to rescue centres.

“The problem we have with these pound dogs is although we have visited them we don’t know them well enough to put them in homes where there are children or cats.

Hyndburn Stray Dogs in Need, Haslingden Old Road, Oswaldtwistle, has had four animals brought in over the past week.

Kath Dewhurst said: “Usually just after Christmas we seem to get more dogs but in the summer it’s usually people wanting to rehome them.”

Paula believes the dogs are being abandoned in time for family holidays.

She added: “We are connecting this with the school holidays – none of the dogs have been reclaimed.