More pets are being abandoned, abused or neglected than ever before, according to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The ISPCA is calling for private kennel owners to lend their kennels to accommodate growing numbers of neglected animals that cannot be housed elsewhere.
It is part of an emergency appeal by the ISPCA called 'Stop the Pain', which is being launched today.
Chief Executive Officer at the ISPCA Dr Cyril Sullivan has said that there have been "unprecedented" numbers of neglected animals this year with numbers likely to be double what they were in 2022.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Sullivan said that the numbers are "staggering from our point of view".
"Our annual numbers for last year have effectively arrived in in the first half of this year," he said.
"So, we're going to have double the numbers of cruelty cases and neglected animals coming into our care. It's a very serious situation for us.
"We really see it as a national crisis in animal welfare and we're launching a national appeal today on the basis that we're determined not to leave any animal behind."
Dr Sullivan explained that the increase in numbers is a post-Covid issue, related to the pandemic when demand for dogs jumped.
He said that the cost of buying a dog tripled and possibly even quadrupled during that time, but then "when everyone went back to work post-Covid, that market effectively died overnight".
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This means, he said, that you had breeders with dogs, some legal, some illegal, and you had people going back to work, which meant that for animal charities, the number of people taking animals into a home reduced significantly.
"So, it's really been a double effect and it's been very serious for us in terms of particularly the breeders and the number of dogs we're taking in," Dr Sullivan said.
He described a recent case where a call was received by the ISPCA national helpline and when an inspector went to a location they found 116 dogs in a small room, all in cages, with no light, no exercise and no food.
"In really deplorable conditions," he said.
Even though the ISPCA kennels and centres are full, they have really no alternative but to take those animals to safety.
As a result, they are renting temporary accommodation and launching a national appeal as the organisation has to be able to work through 2023 and this increase in numbers, he said.
The ISPCA has a plan in place to provide temporary accommodation through private kennelling and vet services are being ramped up.
"But the main thing for us is develop our own capacity. So, to have kennels going into our own centres and to make sure that we take them out of private kennelling into our own care, because it's a far better situation for them," Dr Sullivan said.
He appealed for people to consider fostering animals and see how that works for them and they may decide to adopt after that.
Dr Sullivan said that there are serious penalties in place for abusing animals with fines of up to €250,000 and a five-year prison sentence for cruelty cases.
"The penalties are there, the legislation is there. I think the issue really is more just pushing resources into enforcement," he said.
