People are abandoning their dogs to go on holiday so we might as well give up

Today in the history of humans really sucking sometimes, we bring you this news: Battersea Dogs and Cats Home says there's been a huge increase in the number of calls to take in abandoned animals since the start of the school holidays.

The charity said that there has been a 204 per cent increase in call volume in the first two weeks since school broke up, which they think is linked to the fact that people are jetting off on holiday and don't have the time, money or foresight to arrange for someone else to look after their pets.

One couple bought in their German Spitz called Hayes and said staff had to look after him because they'd sacrificed a holiday the previous year and didn’t want to do the same again.

Woody Woodford-Price, Battersea’s intake coordinator, said that the centre's resources were stretched during the busy summer period.

We’ve had people confuse us with boarding kennels, asking if we can take their pet for a fortnight while they go away and others that blatantly bring in a ‘stray’ dog and send someone else to claim it back a week later. Dogs brought in under such false pretences are potentially taking the space that another genuinely needy dog might otherwise have occupied.

Since being founded in 1860, Battersea Cats and Dogs home has rescued over three million abandoned and lost pets.

So the next time someone says a pet is for life, not just for Christmas, remind them animals are a summer responsibility too.

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