Plymouth animal charity sees demand for pets increase during lockdown
Staff at Gables say they receive around 50 applications for pets every day
Last updated 16th Jun 2021
Animal rehoming charity Gables in Plympton, has seen increased demand in people wanting to adopt a pet during the pandemic.
Staff there say they have been receiving around 50 applications a day but that many potential owners aren't appropriate.
Claire Sparkes is the centre's General Manager. She said:
"We haven't had any visitors on site for over a year and we've seen a lot of benefits to our dogs being less stressed. We have missed that personal contact with people as everything is being done online initially.
"We've found it very difficult to manage people's expectations because we only have so many dogs here and a lot of them are neglected or abused and have difficult behaviours to manage."
The charity is now fundraising to build a brand new, state-of-the-art kennel block for the rescue dogs.
The current parasol dog kennels were built in 1998 and were the best and cheapest option Gables could afford at the time but the charity says the kennels are now 'beyond economic repair'.
Gables is now raising money for the project, and construction work for it is already under way. The first phase will cost £645,000.
Claire said: "We are all very excited to launch this appeal as we have spent a lot of time on the design process, visiting other rescue centres across the country and learning what works and what doesn't.
"Our new kennels will be an incredible improvement for our dogs and will hopefully help them cope better with the stresses and strains of being kennelled, while they wait for new homes."
Find out more about the appeal here.