More than 1,500 reports of abandoned animals made to RSPCA last year in Greater Manchester

Date published: 30 August 2022

As part of the charity’s Cancel Out Cruelty campaign, the RSPCA has revealed it received more than 100 reports of animals being abandoned every single day throughout 2021 in England and Wales and sadly these figures are on the rise this year.

A total of 38,087 abandonment reports were made to the charity’s cruelty line last year - an average of over 3,000 reports a month, 104 a day or four abandoned animals every hour.

Greater Manchester is in the top five places with the highest reports of abandoned animals (number five) with 1,654 abandoned animals reported to the RSPCA in 2021.

This year these figures have risen by 23% in Greater Manchester with 1,012 abandoned animal reports made to the charity in the county from January - July 2022.

Heartbreakingly, the number of animals being dumped is also on the rise nationally with a 17% increase from 2020 to 2021 and a 24% increase in 2022.

The charity fears that a huge rise in pet ownership during the pandemic coupled with the cost of living crisis putting a strain on people’s finances means even more animals are being given up this year.

The animal welfare charity has released the stark figures as part of its Cancel Out Cruelty summer campaign which aims to raise funds to keep its rescue teams on the frontline saving animals in desperate need of help as well as raise awareness about how we can all work together to stop cruelty for good.

Dermot Murphy, Chief Inspectorate Officer at the RSPCA, said: “The idea of putting your cat in a cat carrier and taking them to a secluded spot in the woods before walking away, or chucking your dog out of the car and driving off leaving them desperately running behind the vehicle, is absolutely unthinkable and heartbreaking to most pet owners - but sadly we are seeing animals callously abandoned like this every single day. 

“We understand that sometimes the unexpected can happen - the pandemic and cost of living crisis proved that - but there is never an excuse to abandon an animal. There are always other options for anyone who has fallen on hard times and can no longer afford to keep their pet.”

From January to July 2021 there were 18,375 abandonment reports compared to 22,908 in the first seven months of this year - a rise of 24%.

A recent report released by the RSPCA in partnership with the Scottish SPCA also showed that the cost of living crisis is the most urgent threat to pet welfare in the UK.

The Animal Kindness Index showed that 78% of pet owners think the cost of living will impact their animals, almost seven out of 10 (68%) expressing concern that the cost of care was increasing, and a fifth (19%) worried about how they’ll afford to feed their pets. The study also showed cat owners seem to be most impacted and concerned about cost of living pressures.

This worrying survey comes at a time when the charity is at its busiest period. The RSPCA receives around 90,000 calls to its cruelty line every month but in the summer (July and August) calls rise to 134,000 a month and reports of cruelty soar to 7,600 each month - a devastating 245 every day.

Dogs were the most abandoned pet with 14,462 reports of dumped dogs made to the RSPCA last year. Cats were the second most abandoned pet with 10,051 reports of cats being callously dumped in 2021. There were also 3,363 abandoned exotic pets reported to the RSPCA including 1,455 fish and 685 snakes.

In Greater Manchester, the RSPCA is appealing for information after a young kitten was stashed inside a JD Sports bag, offered to a member of the public on the street to buy, and then thrown into a bush in Moston on 4 August.

 

 

The member of the public who called the RSPCA explained that they had been approached by a man in the street with a JD Sports bag with a kitten stashed inside. The man asked if he ‘wanted a kitten’ and the member of the public declined. However, the witness then saw the man empty the bag and throw the kitten into some bushes before abandoning the eight-week-old moggy.

RSPCA Animal Rescue Officer (ARO) Jess Pierce rescued the cat and took him to be checked over by a vet. Sadly, the vets discovered that as well as being covered in fleas, he also had feline parvovirus and despite the best efforts of the vets and a fosterer, the little kitten had to be put to sleep to end his suffering.

 

 

In another incident, a dying puppy was found dumped like rubbish in a black bin liner with the dead body of her sibling inside.

The pup, thought to only be around 12 weeks old, was abandoned in a cat basket which had been put into a tied up black bag and left at the side of a bin on a footpath near the crematorium, off Bolton Road, in Atherton.

A dog walker made the distressing discovery on 18 February and rushed the Shih tzu puppy to a nearby vet and reported the matter to the RSPCA.

Animal Welfare Officer Steve Wickham took the puppy for emergency veterinary care at RSPCA’s Greater Manchester Animal Hospital but, despite their best efforts, she sadly died from parvovirus - a highly contagious life-threatening disease in dogs. 

Steve said: “This poor puppy was terrified and it must have been an awful ordeal for her cramped up in a basket with her dead sibling. They were in a bin liner which was tied up so tight air could barely get in.

“If she had not been found by the dog walker she would have suffered a slow and lingering death and she would have been absolutely terrified. At least she had some comfort and affection towards the end - although the outcome is very sad.” 

Steve said that tests have revealed the pup’s sibling had also died from parvovirus which can easily be prevented through vaccinations. 

Stories from across England and Wales

One of these was Freya, who was thrown out of a truck driving at around 50mph, and abandoned in Yalding, Kent, in January this year.

It’s a miracle that the frightened terrier wasn’t seriously injured when she was thrown from the moving vehicle like a piece of rubbish. Thankfully, witnesses spotted Freya being dumped and she was taken to the vets who found her to be underweight, suffering from fleas with a matted, dirty coat. After discharging her, she was taken in by the charity for care and rehabilitation and has now found a loving new home.

 

 

Inspector Kirsten Ormerod, who launched an investigation into the incident, said: “Freya was incredibly lucky to survive after being hurled from the moving vehicle at such a high speed and vets were incredibly concerned that she may have suffered internal bleeding so performed surgery immediately.

“Witnesses described her being thrown with such force that she landed on the opposite side of the road, and the vehicle didn’t stop or even slow down.”

A staggering 20 puppies were found abandoned in a crate on a layby near Fryerning, Essex, on Friday 29 July (pictured above).

The puppies were all inside a crate and were found by a kind-hearted member of the public who was walking in the area on Friday at around 3pm.

The finder called the RSPCA and Inspector Sian Ridley and Animal Rescue Officer Enola Evans attended the call and discovered 20 small puppies shut in the metal crate.

They collected the pups and took them straight to a local vet for treatment. One of the puppies was very weak and was being kept warm by a member of the public when the officers arrived but sadly died.

The surviving pups were all small and each weighed less than a bag of sugar - there were 14 males and five females. It is believed they are from two or possibly more separate litters.

 

 

The RSPCA rescued a cat who was cruelly abandoned in a crisps box in Durham.

The male tabby was discovered late on a Friday night in June in an alleyway in Ferryhill.

He was unharmed by his ordeal, but RSPCA Inspector John Lawson who attended the incident says the box could have easily been driven over by a passing vehicle.

 

 

A local resident took the cat into their home and then contacted the RSPCA and he is now being cared for at one of the charity’s animal centres, where he has been named Stephen. 

John said: “Residents in the area heard meowing coming from the alleyway and when they went outside found there was a cat inside this box. It was sellotaped shut, which would have been very distressing for the animal, although there was a small square opening at the top.”

Stephen, who is around four-months old and was not microchipped, has a distinctive white colouring on his chest and paws.  

The RSPCA received 1,081,018 calls to its Cruelty Line in 2021 and these included reports of:

• 1,094 killings or nearly three animals killed a day
• 632 mutilations or 12 animals brutally mutilated every week
• 7,857 beatings which equates to nearly one animal beaten every hour.