West Midlands RSPCA warns of rehoming crisis as record numbers of dogs flood into care
Several large-scale cruelty and neglect cases left the animal welfare charity caring for a record number of dogs
In July, the RSPCA had 1,646 dogs in its care - the highest number on record and more than double the number from July 2020.
Of all the animals in RSPCA care, a third of these were dogs, with 445 dogs rescued in July alone, compared to a five-year average of 245 per month.
With many RSPCA centres already full, almost half of those dogs are being cared for in private kennels - which, along with all the other animals being housed at private boarding establishments due to lack of space, comes at a cost of more than £650,000 a month to the charity.
Glenn Mayoll, Operations Manager at the RSPCA, said: "The summer is the busiest time of year for our frontline teams tackling cruelty and neglect - and on top of this, we’ve been called to help with several major incidents involving hundreds of dogs at once.
"It’s been so incredibly tough for our frontline teams trying to find spaces so we can bring hundreds of suffering dogs to safety and our centres are full and we simply cannot keep up with demand.
"Our teams are working incredibly hard, under immense pressure, to protect the welfare of every dog in our care and we’re calling on the public to help us by considering an RSPCA rescue dog."