During the national lockdown, vets have seen a major increase in the purchase of pets – however the spike in the cost of living has resulted in pets being neglected and returned.
Many people recieved furlough pay in lockdown ; this extra money meant people could afford to get pets to cure their boredom.
Once the UK came out of lockdown, there was then an economic crisis as many businesses suffered and the cost of living has rocketed.
This meant that these animals who were used to constant attention were being abandoned, and taken back to vets and shelters.
This problem has caused charities and vets to be over run, so the animals are left to suffer as less help is available than there would have been in pre-covid times.
Speaking to Registered Veterinary Nurse Amanda Goane, I enquired about how veterinary practice’s are struggling.
She stated “We have seen a huge increase in people wanting to register new pets since lockdown but since Brexit, there has been a national shortage of Veterinary Surgeons. This has created a perfect storm of a pet boom and not enough Vets to take care of them.
Since people have returned to work and the cost of living has rocketed, affording to care for pets is having to become less of a priority for people and fewer pets are getting insured. Shelters and charities are full to capacity and we are seeing an alarming increase in animals being abandoned.
Just last weekend a young dog was presented having been found in a field. Our practice will take on these cases to treat and work with authorities to find homes but this comes at quite a cost to the practice.
The RSPCA introduced “adoptober” last month to promote animal adoption, coninciding with world animal day on October 4th.
A statement was released by the RSPCA expressing the increase in animals needing re-homing due to covid lockdowns and the cost of living crisis : “The number of dogs re-homed by the charity also fell 6% from 4,877 in 2020 to 4,567 in 2021; while cats dropped 12% from 17,868 in 2020 to 15,579 in 2021.”
Animal charities are struggling to re-home the volume of animals coming in to their services. The cost of living crisis affecting the majority of people in the UK has meant that less people are willing to adopt pets as they can`t afford the upkeep (food, vet bills, insurance, etc.)
Dr Samantha Gaines, RSPCA’s pet welfare expert, said: “It’s really concerning to see that animals are staying in our care for longer and that fewer are being re-homed year-on-year. Unfortunately, we believe we’re really starting to see the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis.”
Speaking to veterinary surgeon Pauline Sell, it was clear that the increase in animals needing care and homes has had a negative impact on the mental health of her staff.
“I have definitely witnessed more nurses needing time off due to having poor mental health as they can`t cope with the longer hours needed to be worked to cope with the increase in patients we have received in this past year,”
“The national shortage of people working in the veterinary field means that the staff I do have at the practise have to work twice as hard.”
A study by “Vet Candy” shows that :
“The percentage of veterinarians with serious psychological distress has increased to 9.7% in 2021 as measured by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, compared to 6.4% in 2019, due in large part to the ongoing pandemic.”
Overall, more support is needed for veterinary workers and animals are in desperate need of being adopted in order to enable animal charities to work as well as they used to before covid hit.