Animal rescue charity Dogs Trust Ireland has decided to pause adoptions of its pets until after Christmas.
The dog welfare charity made the decision following concerns the four-legged animals are thrown away like ‘rubbish’ over the festive period in particular.
Dogs Trust Ireland has taken the decision to suspend their adoption services from today, December 16th, until January 4th to address the issue.
January continues to have the highest number of surrenders, with 189 calls and 47 emails received by the charity in the first month of this year. The main reason people gave when looking to give up a dog was that they did not have enough time to look after it.
Dogs Trust Ireland has also warned people about buying dogs online, as puppy farms are becoming a growing concern across the UK.
Sharing its message online, Dogs Trust Ireland wrote:
We are suspending adoptions over the festive period from Dec 16th to Jan 4th. However, our Rehoming team will still be available to chat to anybody thinking of adopting in the new year. If you do decide to buy rather than adopt in the new year, please beware of online sellers.
Since the beginning of the year, Dogs Trust Ireland has received 2,135 calls and emails from the public seeking to surrender dogs, with 667 of these in the first three months of the year.
It is thought there were nine million dogs in the UK last year, along with eight million cats.
In a statement about the decision, Dogs Trust Ireland executive director Becky Bristow said:
Each year we are saddened and worried by the number of people looking to relinquish their dog, especially in the first few months after Christmas
We hope that by spreading this message that it will remind people that a dog is a long-term commitment and will encourage people to wait and consider adding a dog to their family in the New Year instead, when the festivities have died down.
In December 2018, heartbreaking CCTV footage went viral after a Staffordshire Bull Terrier was seen abandoned in the street by his owner.
In the soul-destroying video, you see the dog’s previous owner put his dog bed in the street and then driving off with the dog – later named Snoop – chasing after the car.
You can see the video here:
Snoop was abandoned just eight days before Christmas, making Dogs Trust Ireland’s concerns and decision to suspend adoptions until the new year understandable.
On a lighter note, the lovely Snoop found his forever home in March of this year with doting new owner Laurence Squire.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.