Dogs Trust are teaming up with award-winning street artists to spread their message ‘A dog is for Life, not just for Christmas’ as online searches for puppies are set to peak this week.
In a bid to make people think twice before buying puppies as Christmas presents, Dogs Trust are working with Id-iom to create 12 unique wall designs across the UK, one of which is located in Manchester’s Trinity Way.
The artwork features a Beagle puppy, wrapped as a giant present, with Dogs Trust’s iconic message prominently displayed.
All of the pieces highlight the shocking excuses people give the Trust for no longer wanting their pet.
Despite being their main focus being animal cruelty rather than unwanted animals, The RSPCA Rochdale Branch have also had plenty of first-hand experience with these excuses.
EXCUSES DON’T CUT IT: The wall art in Manchester shows some of the ‘reasons’ people ditch dogs after Christmas
Shirley Mellor, 47, fundraising and events manager, said: “We’re at saturation point now. On a daily basis the staff are getting phone calls from people asking ‘Can you take our animal in? We don’t want it anymore.’
“A good one is ‘my son is now allergic’. They’ll have had the animal for three years and suddenly their son’s allergic. It is a daily problem.”
The Rochdale centre is unable to cope with the influx of animals that they are currently being forced to deal with.
“We’ve not got elastic walls to get all of the animals in that we would like to do. And [the volunteers] all think about the ones that they’ve turned away, what’s going to happen to them now.
“But it is a reality unfortunately. We just haven’t got the capacity.
“Even if we built an extension and built upwards, because we’d then need twice as much money and probably takes between 650,000 and 660,000 pounds a year to keep our rescue centre open.”
Deputy manager Chan Taylor, 34, believes the recent recession is the main cause of the ‘dire’ situation.
She said: “I think some people buy animals on a whim. They take on an animal and they don’t realise the cost of it. We have to find the room.
“We have them in collapsible cages in the offices and some of the staff volunteer and foster them if we haven’t got room in the animal centre. Other local charities are in similar situations because everyone’s at full capacity.”
Image courtesy of Kris, with thanks.
