The Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home have seen the number of animals handed in to them soar in recent weeks as the cost of living crisis continues to worsen for people across the city.
A well-established charity set to celebrate its 140th anniversary, staff at the shelter told Edinburgh Live that a number of reasons have seen a huge rise in the number of people needing to give up their pets.
Caring for all kinds of dogs and cats from newborns to elderly animals, the shelter, based at Seafield, is not yet at full capacity, but have said things are "only going to get worse" in the coming months.
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Suggesting the rise in 'surrenders' is a combination of the cost of living crisis, as well as people rushing into buying 'lockdown puppies', the added issues have seen a surplus of pets needing rehomed as well as the more common reasons.
Seeing their usual numbers rise by almost six times, the EDCH said that a few months ago, they would see around five pets handed in per week, however recently they are seeing around 30-35 come in each week, with one day in particular seeing 30 surrender applications made.
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Speaking about the surge, Director of Operations, Jamie Simpson, said: "Most people will phone up looking for support and often not really knowing what to do, sometimes looking for advice and often we can help and refer them to services like our food bank. But the number of calls we've been getting has been going up, we had about 30 calls last week and the number of dogs coming in to us that have been surrendered is up about 40 per cent so it's definitely increasing and the cost of living is a big factor that people are referencing, it's the challenges they're facing.
"Rehoming-wise, the number of dogs coming in in the last six months has been going up but we have been keeping up with that with rehoming. But we're not sure what that will look like in the run up to Christmas, if the number of dogs coming in continue to rise will we be able to continue to rehome them at the same rate, that might be a challenge.
"We thought through the pandemic we would get a wave of lockdown puppies but it didn't quite work the way we thought, what we've found is we've had consistent periods of dogs coming into us at about eight months to a year old, and it's more to do with not only people going back to work, but now understanding what it means to own a dog, realising they need exercise, training, enrichment, and maybe not being able to commit to that.
"Or with vet bills, they start to maybe have issues the owner realises they can't afford to treat that type of thing, and we've had a lot of dogs come to us like that, which means a lot of extensive veterinary treatment once they're here, or a lot of time getting training and work on positive behaviours with them.
"Some people do research some people don't, and if you haven't thought about the costs beforehand and now you're seeing increased gas and electricity, it's another huge cost for pet insurance and food so it's certainly a factor, and it's something we're really going to face into the winter and the new year."
Hoping to keep as many owners with their dogs as possible, the shelter launched a foodbank service back in 2019 with the hopes of providing pet food and additional items to those in need.
However, as the cost of living has risen, in the last few months the demand on the bank has soared, with what started as providing to four foodbanks now sitting at 64 and counting.
Relying on donations and funding from the public to keep the scheme going, the EDCH have urged anyone who can to make a small donation, 'even if it's just one can of dog food.'
With fears that demand will continue to increase through the winter, Jamie added: "We launched the food banks originally in 2019, but we're now working with over 60 food bank locations all over the area, our demand is going through the roof, it's close to a 50 per cent increase since January. Every day we get calls from new food banks and communities looking for support.
"One of our challenges is despite the donations we are getting and the supporters we do have, our supply is a huge challenge for us right now and we can't keep up with the supply and demand, and that's something we are really asking for support with.
"Whether that be individuals who can donate through our wish list or people dropping food here or at our supermarket donation stations, every part of them goes out to help people in need."
From shredded paper to pet food and toys, you can find a full list of what you can donate to the EDCH here.
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