Have you ever wondered..
What happens to abandoned pets?
People often speak about the love British people have for pets, and not just in the UK. It’s a belief shared by many people overseas where “The British love their pets” seems to be a pretty common opinion. But whilst that may be true in a general sense, it’s not enough for countless thousands of abandoned, lost and mistreated pets that are put down each year in the UK.
Thousands upon thousands of unwanted, lost or mistreated cats, dogs and other pets are taken to pet rescue centres, council pounds every year. Many of these pets are rehomed, given new homes by caring pet lovers, but thousands are put down. There are no reliable figures showing the total number of pets put down through lack of a home, but we know, for example, that between 2014 and 2015 Local Councils in the UK handled 102,363 stray and abandoned dogs. Of those, a total of 5,142 dogs were put to sleep. That equates to one dog killed every 100 minutes in the name of pet-loving British Taxpayers.
But it’s not just Local Councils. Although many pet rescue groups have “No Kill” policies and vow to rehome or keep all pets, that’s not the case for all. You might imagine that the safest place to take an abandoned pet is to your local RSPCA branch, yet official figures show that the animal-welfare charity destroyed 53,000 animals in 2011. Whilst they are trying to reduce the number of pets they kill – figures from 2013 show they put down 24,853 – the numbers show the sheer scale of the problem that exists.