Some of the kittens recently surrendered to the RSPCA ACT shelter. Picture: Supplied.
The RSPCA ACT saw an enormous surge in the number of animals coming into its care this year, resulting in its shelter being at over capacity by August.
CEO Michelle Robertson said the branch is currently facing a “pretty tough situation”.
She said the branch had just over 3000 animals in the 2019 financial year, which then dropped the following years before the 2022 financial year saw 2200 animals come into care.
But in the 2023-2024 financial year, this number jumped up to 2931, of which 1139 were cats, and 60 per cent were strays.
“Usually, we have one or two ferrets a year, but we had over 10 ferrets in care last year,” Ms Robertson said.
RSPCA ACT saw a 30 to 40 per cent increase in numbers in May and June 2024 compared to the same months last year.
“If you ask me why and what’s different, what we do know is that we are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, so I think that is a major factor,” Ms Robertson said.
She said pet ownership increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in a lot of breeders, both registered and non-registered, breeding more animals, “so there was a massive surge in animal numbers”.
She thought the fact that owners have been transitioning back to working in the office over the last 12 to 18 months had played a role, too.
Ms Robertson said adoptions have been much slower recently as well.
“Usually, when we’ve had puppies available for adoption, they would be adopted within a week,” she said.
“But we’ve had a puppy available for three weeks, which is very unusual.”
She said the shelter has seen 100 puppies come into care this year.
In addition to the shelter being at over capacity, more than 200 animals were waiting on the branch’s surrender list by August.
This list is for people who own pets but can no longer care for them.
Ms Robertson said as the branch had so many strays coming in and animals staying at the shelter for longer, it created congestion that meant it could not take more animals on the surrender list.
“We want to help, but we are just so smashed we are unable to help as quickly as we’d like,” she said.
Asked how the community could help with the situation, Ms Robertson said “it’s really important to think it through before you get a pet”.
“Also, if the situation changes, ask for help quickly.”
Ms Robertson said help was available, but sometimes it could take a while longer.
She also said desexing and microchipping were “so important”.
Last week, Region reported a story that demonstrated the importance of microchipping.
Earlier this year, a cat named Obama left his home in Sydney, stowed away in a car, and was only discovered after he was driven to Canberra.
He was reunited with his owners when the RSPCA ACT checked his microchip details.
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