French bulldogs have long been one of Britain's most popular breeds - but a Liverpool animal rescue says it is now struggling to keep up with the number of 'designer dogs' being dumped at its doors.
Carla Lane Animals In Need in Melling has been inundated with up to 150 monthly appeals from desperate dog owners unable to look after their pets.
Rescue founder Fran Ellis said: "Most dogs coming through are between six and 18 months old. Today alone I've taken in 12. A beagle, a labrador, an American bully - we're getting French bulldogs at a rate of five a week.
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"This is because people have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic with the desire to have a dog, and latching onto that are unscrupulous breeders who are breeding 'designer' puppies, and people are buying them on the spur of the moment.
"One year later, it's a whole different story. It's a case of inappropriate breeding and people not giving thought to the future of the dog.
"I have never experienced, in the 40 years I've been doing this, the crisis we're in the middle of now. My staff are worn to a wafer because they're working round the clock from 8am to 9pm trying to deal with the number of requests."
In one day alone, she said the rescue took in Coco the Patterdale terrier, Woody the chihuahua, Duke, a cockapoo, Pip the border collie, Luna the German shepherd, Luna the labrador, Ralph the pug and Flash the French bulldog.
And with another 23 French bulldogs on the waiting list, the future looks grim for the breed that was once named the most fashionable in the UK.
Frenchies overtook labradors as the UK’s most popular dog breed for the first time in 2018, with numbers rising by a massive 2,964% since 2008. This was despite the breed being notorious for genetic health problems, including breathing problems, hip dysplasia, deafness and eyesight issues.
Fran said: "My job is to sift through all these applications and give priority to those in desperate need. We've got others being dumped at the gates. We used to see cases of cruelty once or twice a year, now we're seeing them weekly, where dogs are starved or have bad hair loss.
"We can't take them all in. We could have this controlled flow of dogs in and out, but now it's basically impossible to deal with the number of dogs coming through daily. We're one of the main go-to places - even so we're limited to the numbers.
"Right now we have about 38 dogs here and another four in boarding kennels, and another 33 in foster care."
She added that the rising cost of living was also having an impact on the number of owners giving up their dogs.
She said: "People have got dogs when it was easier to feed them and they had more time, and now the demand on time is increased because they're back at work, the kids are back at school, activities are back on. Add to that the cost of living and having to feed their kids, feed themselves, we're getting lots of calls saying circumstances have changed and they can't afford to keep the dog.
"But it's more than that. There's a general crisis because people have acted spontaneously. Because people have seen cute little dogs and haven't thought about how long they're going to live, and how they've got to exercise and feed them every single day. It's the dogs who are suffering more than any."
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