A chairperson of an animal rescue charity forced to stop taking in dogs due to huge demand for their services has called on landlords to allow pets inside rented properties to ease the burden.
However, Caroline has now called on landlords to ease their stance on pets in rented properties to allow for more adoptions, with many wishing they could help the charity but unable to do so.
The Renters Reform Bill is currently in process; a bill to make provision changing the law about rented homes, including the assurance that landlords do not unreasonably withhold consent when a tenant requests to have a pet in their home, with the tenant able to challenge unfair decisions.
“In the longer term, a more strategic, better regulation of dog ownership, dog breeding. A more sensible, pragmatic approach to that would make a big difference,” Ms Porter said.
“The other big thing that would make a difference is if there was real change around pet ownership in rented accommodation.
“That would make a huge difference because we know we’ve got lots of people who are saying we would love to foster for you, we would love to help but we can’t because our landlord won’t give consent.
“That would make a significant difference to the number of dogs we’re being asked to take and it would make a significant difference to the number of potential fosterers that we have.”
Health and mental health issues are other factors, as the rescue gets a lot of people revealing that they are struggling with stress, depression, anxiety and having a pet is just adding to their stress.
“In particular what we’ve found is that a lot of the dogs that we’re being asked to take in now have quite complex behavioural needs,” Ms Porter said.
“Therefore people who are struggling with stress don’t have the headspace, the capacity to deal with a dog that’s got behavioural needs as well.
“One of our frustrations as well is that we are not alone. We are part of an organisation called The Association of Dogs and Cats Homes, so we are part of a national network of registered rescues. Everybody is facing the same pressure.”
It has also been clear to the charity volunteers that the current legislation around dog ownership is lacking, for example, there is a legal requirement to microchip your dog but no policing around it or a penalty for those who don’t microchip their dogs.
“We’re seeing an increase in dogs being dumped or abandoned, certainly in our area and nationally as well and the majority of those dogs aren’t microchipped. So there are lots of problems at different stages of the process,” Ms Porter said.
“One of the colleagues from the team is waiting for an appointment with our MP so that we can express some of the frustrations about the legislative aspects of it.
“We know most dog owners are wonderful, responsible, loving and treat their dogs as family members, and most of those people would have no objection to being part of the old dog licence we used to have for example unregulated breeding.
“One of the things that contributed to the current glut of dogs that are out there is because of the demand for dogs during the lockdown period, a lot of people took it upon themselves to become amateur breeders. It’s not policed, it’s not really monitored, the chances of somebody getting into trouble for doing it is pretty minimal.”
