A RESCUE service has warned dogs are at risk of dying due to a lack of space in kennels after an increase in pets being dumped.

Pendle Dogs in Need said the ‘pre-Christmas mass dumping’ of dogs has returned and the charity expects it to get worse in the coming weeks.

The service said it has had seven new arrivals in the last week when it usually get one or two.

One American bulldog called Freya, a new mother, nearly died after being left tied to a stone on some farmland.

Manager Paula Knowles warned those thinking of buying puppies as Christmas presents to wait until the end of January.

She said: “Every year we get the pre-Christmas dumping. They come in thick and fast after being dumped all over the area.

“The phones have not stopped ringing.

“We are in crisis and it is getting scary. It is getting to the point where if this carries on we do not know what we are going to do. Dogs are going to die.

“We have not got the room for the amount of dogs coming in and we expect this to go on until February.

“It is only the second week in December and we have never seen it this bad before. It does not make sense.”

She said they had two brought in who had been found on farmland in horrific conditions.

“One had just had puppies. She was tied up. If she had not been brought in by a member of the public she would have died as it was so cold.”

Another, a Bullmastiff crossbreed called Clyde, was found off Rossendale Road in Burnley with sores all over his body.

Miss Knowles said the dogs are taking up spaces that will be needed after Christmas.

“We usually get them coming in around mid January when people have gone back to work and realise puppies are not great being left alone,” she said.

“We have had a number of phone calls from people asking us if we sell puppies.

“They buy them on a whim but they are hard work.

“They just think it is something to make someone smile on Christmas Day but it is not a good time to bring a new dog into the home.

“We have been co-ordinating rescues all over the country.

“We had to transport one dog to the Orkney Islands because we just do not have the space.”

Ms Knowles said the dogs are often bull breeds that are often untrained and require months of work which also slows the process down.

If you can offer a home to a rescue dog visit www.pendledogsinneed.co.uk.