A dog rescue, based in Colne, said it has seen a surge in pet rehoming requests as pet owners seek to ‘offload their dogs’ before the summer holidays.
Co-owner, Paula Knowles, said the Pendle Dogs has received “non-stop requests” to rehome people's unwanted dogs, receiving 36 phone calls last week alone.
She put out an appeal to stop requests, adding that the group is prioritising saving unclaimed stray dogs and welfare needs dogs.
Paula described this as the ‘pre-holiday dump’ and said the group often receives a surge in rehoming right before a holiday, such as the summer holidays or even ahead of a bank holiday .
She said: “The week before a holiday we notice we get an influx of dogs needing to be rehomed. Even if it’s a bank holiday. This is always the worst time of the year and the calls probably won't calm down now for four weeks.”
Paula said many owners have “excuses” for not being able to keep the dog, including moving home, breaking up with a partner.
She said: “We try to give them advice, such as trying to provide food – but [we find] the excuse is never cost-related - they just have a dog they no longer want.
"They might be moving, might have split with their partner, or they might have dogs with aggression issues – and we can’t bring dogs in with aggression.”
Paula said other dog rescues are in a similar situation, meaning she no longer knows where to signpost the people calling.
She said: “We also can't recommend other rescues as they are struggling as much as us. The UK dog rescue system is currently in meltdown and there are no spaces anywhere.
“When we tell [some people] this they say ‘we will just dump it then’ and we don’t know how to respond to that.
“In an ideal world, rescues would have spaces for all unwanted dogs and have people queuing up to adopt them, but sadly this just isn't the case and we have to prioritise spaces for the most at risk which is the unclaimed strays (pound dogs) and the welfare need dogs.”
Paula said she has noticed a surge in unwanted dogs since the beginning of lockdown.
“We’ve felt this was coming for a long time. It’s been brewing since lockdown in 2020 when a lot of people got dogs," she said.
“At one time, we seemed to be on top of this and get out there to make a difference – but now we are so flooded we can’t help everyone. We are feeling pretty useless at the moment.”
She believes dogs have become too easy to get hold of and is encouraging the public to think twice before getting a dog.
She said: “Dogs are so easy to get hold of now. They are cheap and there are so many of them out there without stable homes. When people are getting dogs they aren’t thinking about the responsibility that comes with it.
“A lot of dogs that come to us aren’t trained – it takes very little effort for us to turn these dogs around it’s just that they’ve had no one consistent in their lives.
“Man’s best friend has suddenly become so disposable and it’s heartbreaking.
“If you’re going to get a dog think hard before you do and get one from a rescue. We know where the dogs come from and can match a dog with most homes.”
