This would be a good time to kill two birds with one stone and introduce much stricter requirements for owning a dog, including affordability checks.
They will regret abandoning their pets when they have nothing left to eat
A dog is for life …not just for lockdown.
I’m surprised this comes as a surprise to, well, anyone.
That so many people decided to get new pets during lockdown, and so many people decided that wfh would be the new norm because they wanted it to and things wouldn’t change and they would never have to go back to working outside the home, seemed insane to me at the time. Couple that to the sort of rise in living costs we are seeing now and this was inevitable.
Most people don’t realise the total cost of ownership of a dog is thousands if not tens of thousands of pounds.
That’s genuine question (I really don’t know). What are the costs of having a dog in the UK? Except the entry cost of equipment, what do you need on daily (monthly bases)? Isn’t just a 100 bags for a £1 and some food? It sounds weird for me that someone would abandon a dog because of the cost. What else is there that I don’t know about?
I think I’d rather get into massive debt and starve to death rather than ever give up my very needy little kitty. He’s totally got attachment issues and I think the constant attention and affection I get off him is about all that holds my mental health barely above water
Could this have more to do with the glut of people impulse purchasing dogs because they were bored during lockdown?
Everyone round me recently got dogs and just launch them outside when they’re barking a lot to a chorus of neighbours yelling out their windows for them to shut up. It’s really cool.
It costs me about £70 month to feed and insure my dog and get him occasional extra treats and toys. That’s nothing compared to everything else. My mortgage has gone up by £60, petrol has gone up £40, energy £50, food £50, assorted extras £100…not to mention the increase in NI and freezing of the threshold at which I repay my student debt. I live a very frugal lifestyle but these are all unavoidable rises.
The cost of keeping my dog has only gone up maybe £10. The problem isn’t my dog.
Bollocks, I could be down to my last penny and I wouldn’t give up my dog.
Well, who saw this coming…
The cost + they got dogs for ‘company’ during Covid, now they are back to work they haven’t the time plus it’s been far too hot to walk in the day with a dog. A perfect storm of ‘this is more trouble than i thought’.
My cat is a product of the pandemic. He’s my pet for life!
Because we have nurtured an environment where animals are domesticated or used for our own ends. This means that when society crumbles; animals are among the first victims.
Wasn’t there an upsurge in dog and cat ownership during Covid? Any connection here? e.g. people at home all day, bored, needing an animal to humanise and give them love. And now that there is clearly no post Covid happy horizon, the dogs are on the streets.
I wonder how many were purchased when people had a lot of free time during lockdown. Kinda expected to here stories of people giving up on pets when things went back to “normal” and the cost of living is just making it worse.
Hmm… During the COVID lockdowns loads of dogs wer purchased, a few were abandoned after. Then now loads of aforementioned dogs are being abandoned because people can’t afford them.
Vet bills are so expensive, our rabbit needed emergency surgery this week & spent two nights at vets – total cost £2k
We were lucky we had the money to pay for it but so we easy for the bills to mount up and people just don’t have that money now. If we had taken the other option it would have still been in the hundreds after the emergency appointment
While the two are correlated, I do wonder how many of these pets are being abandoned because people are returning to the office more, and no longer have the time or energy to look after a dog. I have a feeling a lot of these pets are also abandoned due to the novelty wearing off.
I also don’t imagine many would admit they are giving up a pet because they are bored of it… if asked they’d likely just say cost of living.
Abandoning pets, dogs especially, this always baffles me.
I bet a lot of people got pets during the lockdowns and now they have decided that it’s not for them.
If more people were allowed in rentals to own pets alongside more strict adoption rules i think would help.
Dog licenses are DESPERATELY needed.
Not only to put off spontaneous buys but to prove competence and knowledge of breed and requirements. Included in that is proof of space and time availablity and fundamental knowledge of dog training and nutrition.
Then you should be required by law to take your dog to the vets once a year for a MOT type check up where if you fail to attend, show proof your dog is still in your care or your dog is showing signs of neglect or abuse you lose your license.
Are they literally abandoning them? Or are they sending them to homes etc, because there’s a big difference. Frankly if there ever came a time where I had to choose between feeding my daughter and feeding the dog, it’s definitely not gunna be the dog.
Haven’t seen a lot of comments mentioning doggy daycare or dog walkers. That’s where the real money hole is for owning a dog and working full time.
We both work shift work full time. A dog walker in my area charges about £15 an hour and drop ins are about £12 for a half hour visit. That’s £300 every four weeks if you need a walker 5 days a week.
I’d want to walk my own dog but I wouldn’t want to leave it alone all day either (no option to go back on my lunch break and no family nearby to check in on it) so if we got one that would be a large financial consideration that we can afford right this minute but probably wouldn’t by the end of the year. It’d be cruel to keep an animal home along for 9+ hours a day some days and I imagine quite a few people are now in that boat.
During the pandemic tons of people got pets because they were stuck at home.
Large dogs, small cats, etc… People that before never had a life compatible with pets were now getting pets because they’re soooooo cute.
Now look what happen… Fucking wankers..
I’d be more concerned at all the people who had covid babies… like what are they going to do with that financial mistake
I have 4 dogs and 6 cats.
It’s not the food that’s expensive it’s potential vet bills. None of mine have needed treatment yet, the expenditure has been on neutering and spaying.
Mine are currently not insured but I will be insuring them all for a fairly low-level when I move soon as I’ll be rent and mortgage free.
Dog food comes to £90 a month, cat food maybe £70. Insurance WAS £300 a month. Flea and worming is £50 a month.
This would be the very last thing I would do. My dog is part of my family. My dog costs next to nothing in food. More likely people have got pets during lockdown and have simply become bored of them.
My pet insurance has gone up – by a lot. They’re charging me extra per month.. while putting the excess up from £75 to £100 and limiting the coverage insurance from 10k to 8k. Inflation is an issue for a lot of companies but some companies are just taking the complete and utter piss right now.
I could never abandon my cat. I’m broken up just at the thought of having to leave him in a cattery for week while we go on holiday.
Anyone who abandons or hurts a dog should go on the list.
Please tell me if I’m missing something here.
>Cost of living goes up
>Gas and electric prices have nearly doubled
>Food prices increasing
>Rent increasing
>NI increasing
>Fuel prices increasing
>People being forced to pay for private healthcare due to NHS being underfunded and understaffed
>People with full time jobs have to claim benefits to afford to live, which are constantly getting cuts by the government
>People who could once afford their pet are now being forced to give them up because they’re being billed out the ass by everything due to the worst inflation spike in 40 years
>”Well they shouldn’t buy pets they can’t afford” as if people could foresee that we’d be in the worst recession in 40 years when they bought the pet
I feel there may be people who are completely neglecting or potentially deliberatly ignoring a few very important factors when they hear this information and then say that opinion. Just a hunch. Idk it’s just weird posturing and being holier-than-thou when people are having to make horrible choices.
I’m not surprised by this! We have a mix breed rescue dog never had any major health issues but our insurance tried to almost double or monthly bill this year to £70 per month and when we asked why they just said “as dogs get older it costs more” but we’ve never had a jump like this before it’s so hard to deal with just random companies deciding to take advantage of the cost of living crisis and bump their prices
Adopting a dog from the Humane Society in Minnesota costs about $400 but IF the dog is healthy and no daycare is needed are cheap. It costs $25 a month to feed our lab so I am confused about how a dog is such a heavy financial burden. They require lots of play, walking time, poop pick up, and love. When the novelty wears off I suspect some claim lack of money when that’s not the real issue. Either way though all animals deserve a loving, committed owner so it is nice to see them being re-homed.
I have 2 cats and I won’t be having any more pets after they’re gone. Hopefully not for a long while yet, by then I’ll be in my mid to late 40s.
A dog is not expensive despite what everyone has told us. They CAN be expensive and as others have said there’s other things to downsize/forego for your pet’s food. Insurance, food and poo bags costs me less than my commute to work. If you’ve got an old or designer dog the vet bills can be quite high though.
People shouldn’t have gotten them in the first place, too many idiots in the world thinking pets are some toy they can abandon.
Alot of people purchased dogs because of covid and lockdown i noticed. Hence why the price shot up alot to purchase a dog during those times. Now we have routine back and no restrictions etc, people dont want them. Such a shame. its not just about cost of living that’s affecting this, its the people who purchased them during those quiet and lonely times.
Hi, I just thought I would share this small not-for-profit community project that help keep pets in homes, as many people are finding it difficult with the cost of living crisis and our rescues are becoming overwhelmed.
About Us:
We currently support homeless charities, human food banks and community centres as well as providing food for vulnerable individuals who are referred through social workers or other professionals. Since April 2021, we have grown and now have 14 volunteers and provide support to 20 food banks, community centres and other food programmes – we rely purely on donations for this. We started in Sheffield but now cover Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Chesterfield and Gainsborough, Leeds and Wakefield – with requests coming in to set up further afield to provide more assistance to those in need.
Many people are struggling with low income/job losses at the moment and we hate to think people have to make a hard decision to rehome their pets if they are already having a difficult time. The aim of the food bank is to keep loved pets at home, thus supporting their humans but also helping support rescues by keeping much loved pets at home.
We cannot do this without support, and we are always looking for more help as the pet food we have goes as soon as we receive it due to so many people being in need.
42 comments
There’s a lot of things I learnt during the pandemic, one of the main things being that a lot of people are very selfish and generally shitty.
Battersea has reported the same
[Previous discussion](https://redd.it/woykcm).
This would be a good time to kill two birds with one stone and introduce much stricter requirements for owning a dog, including affordability checks.
They will regret abandoning their pets when they have nothing left to eat
A dog is for life …not just for lockdown.
I’m surprised this comes as a surprise to, well, anyone.
That so many people decided to get new pets during lockdown, and so many people decided that wfh would be the new norm because they wanted it to and things wouldn’t change and they would never have to go back to working outside the home, seemed insane to me at the time. Couple that to the sort of rise in living costs we are seeing now and this was inevitable.
Most people don’t realise the total cost of ownership of a dog is thousands if not tens of thousands of pounds.
That’s genuine question (I really don’t know). What are the costs of having a dog in the UK? Except the entry cost of equipment, what do you need on daily (monthly bases)? Isn’t just a 100 bags for a £1 and some food? It sounds weird for me that someone would abandon a dog because of the cost. What else is there that I don’t know about?
I think I’d rather get into massive debt and starve to death rather than ever give up my very needy little kitty. He’s totally got attachment issues and I think the constant attention and affection I get off him is about all that holds my mental health barely above water
Could this have more to do with the glut of people impulse purchasing dogs because they were bored during lockdown?
Everyone round me recently got dogs and just launch them outside when they’re barking a lot to a chorus of neighbours yelling out their windows for them to shut up. It’s really cool.
It costs me about £70 month to feed and insure my dog and get him occasional extra treats and toys. That’s nothing compared to everything else. My mortgage has gone up by £60, petrol has gone up £40, energy £50, food £50, assorted extras £100…not to mention the increase in NI and freezing of the threshold at which I repay my student debt. I live a very frugal lifestyle but these are all unavoidable rises.
The cost of keeping my dog has only gone up maybe £10. The problem isn’t my dog.
Bollocks, I could be down to my last penny and I wouldn’t give up my dog.
Well, who saw this coming…
The cost + they got dogs for ‘company’ during Covid, now they are back to work they haven’t the time plus it’s been far too hot to walk in the day with a dog. A perfect storm of ‘this is more trouble than i thought’.
My cat is a product of the pandemic. He’s my pet for life!
Because we have nurtured an environment where animals are domesticated or used for our own ends. This means that when society crumbles; animals are among the first victims.
Wasn’t there an upsurge in dog and cat ownership during Covid? Any connection here? e.g. people at home all day, bored, needing an animal to humanise and give them love. And now that there is clearly no post Covid happy horizon, the dogs are on the streets.
I wonder how many were purchased when people had a lot of free time during lockdown. Kinda expected to here stories of people giving up on pets when things went back to “normal” and the cost of living is just making it worse.
Hmm… During the COVID lockdowns loads of dogs wer purchased, a few were abandoned after. Then now loads of aforementioned dogs are being abandoned because people can’t afford them.
Vet bills are so expensive, our rabbit needed emergency surgery this week & spent two nights at vets – total cost £2k
We were lucky we had the money to pay for it but so we easy for the bills to mount up and people just don’t have that money now. If we had taken the other option it would have still been in the hundreds after the emergency appointment
While the two are correlated, I do wonder how many of these pets are being abandoned because people are returning to the office more, and no longer have the time or energy to look after a dog. I have a feeling a lot of these pets are also abandoned due to the novelty wearing off.
I also don’t imagine many would admit they are giving up a pet because they are bored of it… if asked they’d likely just say cost of living.
Abandoning pets, dogs especially, this always baffles me.
I bet a lot of people got pets during the lockdowns and now they have decided that it’s not for them.
If more people were allowed in rentals to own pets alongside more strict adoption rules i think would help.
Dog licenses are DESPERATELY needed.
Not only to put off spontaneous buys but to prove competence and knowledge of breed and requirements. Included in that is proof of space and time availablity and fundamental knowledge of dog training and nutrition.
Then you should be required by law to take your dog to the vets once a year for a MOT type check up where if you fail to attend, show proof your dog is still in your care or your dog is showing signs of neglect or abuse you lose your license.
Are they literally abandoning them? Or are they sending them to homes etc, because there’s a big difference. Frankly if there ever came a time where I had to choose between feeding my daughter and feeding the dog, it’s definitely not gunna be the dog.
Haven’t seen a lot of comments mentioning doggy daycare or dog walkers. That’s where the real money hole is for owning a dog and working full time.
We both work shift work full time. A dog walker in my area charges about £15 an hour and drop ins are about £12 for a half hour visit. That’s £300 every four weeks if you need a walker 5 days a week.
I’d want to walk my own dog but I wouldn’t want to leave it alone all day either (no option to go back on my lunch break and no family nearby to check in on it) so if we got one that would be a large financial consideration that we can afford right this minute but probably wouldn’t by the end of the year. It’d be cruel to keep an animal home along for 9+ hours a day some days and I imagine quite a few people are now in that boat.
During the pandemic tons of people got pets because they were stuck at home.
Large dogs, small cats, etc… People that before never had a life compatible with pets were now getting pets because they’re soooooo cute.
Now look what happen… Fucking wankers..
I’d be more concerned at all the people who had covid babies… like what are they going to do with that financial mistake
I have 4 dogs and 6 cats.
It’s not the food that’s expensive it’s potential vet bills. None of mine have needed treatment yet, the expenditure has been on neutering and spaying.
Mine are currently not insured but I will be insuring them all for a fairly low-level when I move soon as I’ll be rent and mortgage free.
Dog food comes to £90 a month, cat food maybe £70. Insurance WAS £300 a month. Flea and worming is £50 a month.
This would be the very last thing I would do. My dog is part of my family. My dog costs next to nothing in food. More likely people have got pets during lockdown and have simply become bored of them.
My pet insurance has gone up – by a lot. They’re charging me extra per month.. while putting the excess up from £75 to £100 and limiting the coverage insurance from 10k to 8k. Inflation is an issue for a lot of companies but some companies are just taking the complete and utter piss right now.
I could never abandon my cat. I’m broken up just at the thought of having to leave him in a cattery for week while we go on holiday.
Anyone who abandons or hurts a dog should go on the list.
Please tell me if I’m missing something here.
>Cost of living goes up
>Gas and electric prices have nearly doubled
>Food prices increasing
>Rent increasing
>NI increasing
>Fuel prices increasing
>People being forced to pay for private healthcare due to NHS being underfunded and understaffed
>People with full time jobs have to claim benefits to afford to live, which are constantly getting cuts by the government
>People who could once afford their pet are now being forced to give them up because they’re being billed out the ass by everything due to the worst inflation spike in 40 years
>”Well they shouldn’t buy pets they can’t afford” as if people could foresee that we’d be in the worst recession in 40 years when they bought the pet
I feel there may be people who are completely neglecting or potentially deliberatly ignoring a few very important factors when they hear this information and then say that opinion. Just a hunch. Idk it’s just weird posturing and being holier-than-thou when people are having to make horrible choices.
I’m not surprised by this! We have a mix breed rescue dog never had any major health issues but our insurance tried to almost double or monthly bill this year to £70 per month and when we asked why they just said “as dogs get older it costs more” but we’ve never had a jump like this before it’s so hard to deal with just random companies deciding to take advantage of the cost of living crisis and bump their prices
Adopting a dog from the Humane Society in Minnesota costs about $400 but IF the dog is healthy and no daycare is needed are cheap. It costs $25 a month to feed our lab so I am confused about how a dog is such a heavy financial burden. They require lots of play, walking time, poop pick up, and love. When the novelty wears off I suspect some claim lack of money when that’s not the real issue. Either way though all animals deserve a loving, committed owner so it is nice to see them being re-homed.
I have 2 cats and I won’t be having any more pets after they’re gone. Hopefully not for a long while yet, by then I’ll be in my mid to late 40s.
A dog is not expensive despite what everyone has told us. They CAN be expensive and as others have said there’s other things to downsize/forego for your pet’s food. Insurance, food and poo bags costs me less than my commute to work. If you’ve got an old or designer dog the vet bills can be quite high though.
People shouldn’t have gotten them in the first place, too many idiots in the world thinking pets are some toy they can abandon.
Alot of people purchased dogs because of covid and lockdown i noticed. Hence why the price shot up alot to purchase a dog during those times. Now we have routine back and no restrictions etc, people dont want them. Such a shame. its not just about cost of living that’s affecting this, its the people who purchased them during those quiet and lonely times.
Hi, I just thought I would share this small not-for-profit community project that help keep pets in homes, as many people are finding it difficult with the cost of living crisis and our rescues are becoming overwhelmed.
About Us:
We currently support homeless charities, human food banks and community centres as well as providing food for vulnerable individuals who are referred through social workers or other professionals. Since April 2021, we have grown and now have 14 volunteers and provide support to 20 food banks, community centres and other food programmes – we rely purely on donations for this. We started in Sheffield but now cover Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Chesterfield and Gainsborough, Leeds and Wakefield – with requests coming in to set up further afield to provide more assistance to those in need.
Many people are struggling with low income/job losses at the moment and we hate to think people have to make a hard decision to rehome their pets if they are already having a difficult time. The aim of the food bank is to keep loved pets at home, thus supporting their humans but also helping support rescues by keeping much loved pets at home.
We cannot do this without support, and we are always looking for more help as the pet food we have goes as soon as we receive it due to so many people being in need.
[Find our details here! ](https://linktr.ee/yourpetfoodbank)
🐾💜💙💚