Margaret Green Animal Rescue expects more pets to be rehomed

Margaret Green Animal Rescue is anticipating more pets requiring its service as rising costs are forcing people to make “terrible decisions”.

The charity, which is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming animals, has already reported an influx of pets into the service as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Nigel Mason, the chief executive at Margaret Green, said: “We’re seeing dogs come in that were acquired during Covid.

“It may be that the owners acquired the pets for their own salvation, or their own good, but didn’t quite realise what that would mean when they went back to work, for example.

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“Many have got behavioural issues and medical issues. These pets cost us more because they stay longer. We have to do more work with them.

“We’ve seen some really, really sad cases.”

Now, with living costs rising across the country, the charity expects a second influx of pets needing to be re-homed.

“With over a million new dogs in the country over the last two years, inevitably a number of those are going to filter through to us.

“We’re anticipating that we’re going to see that more as people start to feel pinched and have to start making choices.

“We’ve certainly had more enquiries about taking in equines. They’re obviously more costly in general and so they tend to be the first ones to go if there are financial issues.

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“Most donors are good people and they care but they just have to make terrible decisions because of the economics. We do treat this with compassion.

“People are coming on hard times and they’ve got to make choices, and that’ll mean that we have to start making choices as well.”

Although the charity is yet to see increased rehoming cases due to rising costs, they have definitely felt the impacts elsewhere.

Nigel said: “Costs are rising across the board. It’s the same for everyone at the moment.

“It’s certainly causing us some concerns around cash flow. It eats into the money that we’d perhaps want to spend on more meaningful things.

“We are having to budget for significant increases in utilities going forward.”

To donate to the charity visit margaretgreenanimalrescue.org.uk.