Every summer, the number of abandoned pets at Danish animal shelters goes up, and this year is no exception.
At the end of June, the animal welfare organisation Dyrenes Beskyttelse rescued 833 animals, which was twice more than in the months of February, March and April combined.
One of the reasons more pets are abandoned in the summer is because people go on vacation, explains Jens Jokumsen, the chief consultant at Dyrenes Beskyttelse.
“It’s usually something they have been considering for a while and when they go on vacation, they bring the pet to a shelter to avoid paying for expensive housing and the like,” Jokumsen told Jyllands-Posten.
“Sadly, we still see that many animals are simply being dumped. People release their pet rabbits into the wild or set a cardboard box with kittens some place.”
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Unwanted cats
Kittens top the list of the most abandoned pets, followed by dogs and rabbits.
But there are also many birds, hamsters and guinea pigs at the shelters, according to Dyrenes Beskyttelse.
Meanwhile, a lack of space at the animal shelters becomes a great problem during the summer, although the welfare organisation tries to find new home for most of the abandoned pets.
Last year, Dyrenes Beskyttelse found a new home to 6,315 animals.
