Record numbers of people are buying puppies during the lockdown and rescue homes predict a surge in demand for re-homing.
With a lot of people seen buying and adopting puppies during the lockdown to “keep them company”, rescue homes predict a lot of them left lonely at home or sent back for re-homing later.
With a change in lifestyle that will occur once the lockdown is lifted, the rescue homes predict a lot of dogs to be returned to their shelters for re-homing.
Sylvia, CEO of Many Tears Animal Rescue, said, “Due to COVID, a lot of people wanted to buy puppies all of a sudden. Before this, the breeders sold the puppies for 800 GBP but during the lockdown, they sold the same puppies for 3,000 GBP. I think about three quarters more puppies were sold this year than any year.”
“Right now there is a change in lifestyle with people working from home a lot more now and they can have a dog. Before they used to work for 40-50 hours a week but they are mostly at home now. But once they have to go back to work in an office space away from home, what are they going to do with their dogs? Are they going to be stuck at home or alone again?”, said Nickiowen, Media Officer, NCAR.
Most of these rescue homes work on a rotational basis. They limit the number of puppies in the center using the rescue — re-home — rescue method. Hence, predicting a crisis during the post-lockdown phase.
“Because they have spent so much money on buying the puppies and humans are greedy. 99% of humans have a certain amount of greed in them. They won’t want to give them to a rescue. They’d want to sell them again. After selling them about three or four times, they’ll finally go back to the breeding chain or they’ll be so wrecked that we’ll have to rehabilitate them and get them right again when they could’ve been right the whole way”, said Sylvia while explaining the lifecycle of the puppies.
While some rescue centers are still working hard on re-homing pets, some have to remain closed during the lockdown. Nevertheless, taking care of rescued animals and rescuing more animals continue each day. Finally, the rescue centers urge people to think long-term when adopting or buying an animal and not focus on just the lockdown or the festivities.