A leading vet charity has warned that the UK faces a ‘pet poverty’ crisis as COVID-19 forces thousands more owners into economic hardship.
PDSA has been inundated with enquiries from owners struggling financially since the start of lockdown, and calculates as many as 50,000 more pets will be eligible for its services over the coming months.
According to the charity’s figures, there’s been a 59 per cent rise in new enquiries, on top of an 81 per cent increase in requests for help from eligible owners, meaning even more pressure is being piled onto its veterinary teams.