![]() ![]() “These people got dogs in a very strange time. “We think about one and a half million extra dogs were acquired in the last 18 months,” says Adam Clowes, the Dogs Trust operations director. Traffic to the “giving up your dog” pages of its website in July was up 100% compared with February 2021, and 180% higher than in February 2020, before the UK’s first lockdown. ![]() Dogs Trust, the largest dog welfare charity in the UK, has seen a 39% increase in phone calls to hand over dogs since 12 July, when “Freedom Day”, a week later, was confirmed. ![]() The same is happening at all the dog charities. The All Dogs Matter kennels are full to bursting it has happened in the past few weeks, says Moss, and there’s a waiting list. I also meet Ash, a cockapoo with some anger issues Zara, a shepherd, whose owner had issues of his own Trigger and Millie, ex-racing greyhounds now happy listening to Christmas music in their kennel and Diamond, a staffie, who was probably used for breeding then dumped when she got too old. “People think frenchies are cute, because they’ve got big ears, but they can be quite feisty.” Moss took Mimi home one night, her husband fell in love, and they ended up adopting Mimi themselves. Mimi, a French bulldog, was one of a litter of six taken from someone who was breeding dogs in their council flat and handed over to All Dogs Matter by the council. There’s no legislation, you can just put them online and you don’t know what you’re taking home.” Unlike many, Spike’s owners did the right thing and gave him up to the charity where Moss and her team will try to find him a suitable new home.Īt the other end of Moss’s lead – scuttling around her legs, sometimes demanding to be picked up – is Mimi, another pandemic puppy. “Someone with a two-year-old in a flat could buy an XL bully and they are potentially taking home a weapon. “If they’d sold him online, they’d have had hundreds of offers for him,” says Moss. They lived in a flat, so Spike didn’t get exercised or socialised properly, and his owners couldn’t cope. ![]() He was imported as a puppy from Hungary, where ear cropping, illegal in the UK, still happens, and was bought by a young couple for £4,000 (prices rocketed during the pandemic). When he gets nervous, he wees, and Spike gets nervous a lot. ![]()
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