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 and sadly these figures are on the rise this year.
In Wales there were 2,509 abandoned animals reported to the RSPCA in 2021, including 75 in Gwynedd.
This year these figures have risen by 23 per cent in Wales with 1,554 abandoned animal reports made to the charity in the country from January - July 2022.
The number of animals being dumped is also on the rise nationally with a 17 per cent increase from 2020 to 2021 and a 24 per cent 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.
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 per cent.
The Animal Kindness Index showed that 78 per cent of pet owners think the cost of living will impact their animals, with a fifth worried about how they’ll afford to feed their pets.
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.