"Landlords are renting to people with no dogs rather than to those that do"

Over the past three years, Dogs Trust have seen an 80% increase in people having to surrender pets because they cannot be homed in rental properties. The animal welfare charity also said that they've seen an overall surge in rescue requests since the covid pandemic. Head of Communications at Dogs Trust Ireland, Ciara Murran was speaking on Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show during the week. She shared the pretty upsetting reality of what the charity has to deal with every day. She said: "It's quite astonishing the amount of dogs that are being surrendered. The rise in dogs being surrendered is particularly coming out of covid. "We would have near to 3,000 annual surrender requests from people." She said that as a charity they get a large number of dogs given up by people who are struggling to find appropriate accommodation and that it's "absolutely devastating" for owners. She said: "We've seen an 80% increase over the past three years of people looking to give up their dog purely down to accommodation. "We have listed it as one of the top three reasons that people give for having to surrender their dog."

Change in circumstance.

Murran said that sometimes giving up a dog has nothing to do with the dog at all and reasons can really vary. Many people are looking to buy or rent property but some landlords have strict no pet rules. She said: "It could be to do with a change in circumstance. The owner might be selling up or moving elsewhere. "There is a massive rental crisis at the moment, and unfortunately the demand is far outweighing the supply. "We're seeing that landlords are renting to people that don't have dogs, rather than to the people that do." Dogs Trust Ireland work super hard to find these beautiful fluffy friends forever homes so if you want to take the next step in fostering or adopting one of these guys, get in touch here.   Related links:

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