There is (already) no more room. While we are only at the beginning of summer, the Animal protection Society (SPA) launches a cry of alert in the face of the acceleration of abandonment. Its shelters have also reached their maximum capacity, especially catteries.
With 7,700 residents, “the sites are close to saturation” and “adoptions are less numerous during this summer vacation period”, explains the SPA in a press release on Thursday, fearing “soon not to be able to take care of the abandonments. and welcome new animals ”.
Mainly cats, rodents, reptiles …
Since May 1, 8,932 abandoned animals have been collected by the SPA in its 62 shelters and SPA Houses, i.e. 6% more than in 2019 over the same period.
This trend accelerated in the month of June with an increase of 14% compared to 2019. The strongest increase concerns cats and NACs (new pets: rodents, reptiles, etc.) whose collection has increased 25% in June compared to 2019.
An alarming situation because “this 2021 trend is beating all the sad records of previous years”, deplore animal rights activists who denounce “easy and disempowering purchases on the Internet, as on the Bon Coin and in pet stores which took place in 2020” .
“Animals become the collateral victims of the health crisis”
“The SPA is going through an even more dramatic start to the summer than the previous ones because we have to manage the consequences of the pandemic and the drifts of the animal business”, warns Jacques-Charles Fombonne, president of the SPA. “It is ultimately late that pets become collateral victims of the health crisis,” he said.
To stop the “animal object” problem, it is waiting for the government to confirm the ban on the sale of pets in pet stores and on the Internet.
“This sad reality that we are living will allow the Senate to ratify the articles of law on the modes of acquisition of companion animals, voted in January at the National Assembly”, hopes Jacques-Charles Fombonne.
This bill should help avoid impulse purchases of pets, which then lead to too many neglect, some 100,000 animals being abandoned each year in France.