Britain’s biggest animal charity has urged families to consider adopting a pet after revealing its rescue sites were “overwhelmed”.
The RSPCA said a huge rise in mass abandonments – involving ten or more animals at once – had partly fuelled the crisis.
Such incidents have rocketed by nearly 70 per cent in just four years. Last year, it responded to 4,200 incidents involving at least ten animals at the same address across England and Wales – including 493 in the West Midlands.
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And it said rising cruelty and neglect led to a six-year high of animals in RSPCA care, with almost half in emergency boarding because centres were full.
RSPCA Superintendent Jo Hirst said: “We are struggling with rising reports of cruelty and neglect and over recent years more and more of those reports will involve ten, 20, even 100 animals. And because they’ve been living in large groups, they may need more support until they are ready to find a new home.
“We currently have more animals in our care than space in our centres. These large animal rescues are adding to already overwhelmed animal centres and local charities.
“We really need help from animal lovers. If you are considering adding a pet to your home, please consider rescuing. We need extra special homes for some of our animals.”
Last year, the RSPCA responded to 1,752 mass cat incidents – an average of almost five every day – and 1,119 mass dog reports – a daily average of three.
There were 75 large-scale incidents involving 100 or more animals being rescued from the same property last year – 13 included cats, and three included dogs.
The RSPCA linked cases of large numbers of animals being kept at one address to mental health struggles, the cost of living crisis, or breeders operating with poor practices.
Jo said: “Rescues involving lots of animals are often very complex – and sometimes can include very difficult family circumstances, mental health problems, or be linked to irresponsible pet breeding.
“People accumulate animals for a multitude of reasons, but the welfare risks for these poor animals are always the same.
“We’ve already had at least five incidents involving hundreds of pets this year. Those sorts of rescues put strain on our services, and are extremely harmful to the animals involved. It is vital we work with external partners when dealing with these types of incidents – to ensure support is in place where appropriate.
“Often, animals rescued from crowded environments are under-socialised and require a long period of rehab before being rehomeable, which puts even more strain on an already stretched rescue centre.
“We are encouraging people to contact an animal rescue organisation if they are at a stage where they, or someone they know, is struggling with the numbers of animals they have in their household. Often, problems escalate because people don’t reach out early enough.”
Visit rspca.org.uk/findapet now if you are able to help by adopting a pet.