THE RSPCA has revealed that the charity receives four reports of abandoned animals every hour.

In Worcestershire alone, 326 abandoned animals were reported to the RSPCA in 2021 and so far in 2022 (from January - July), there have been 197 reports of abandoned animals in Worcestershire.

The RSPCA is running a Cancel Out Cruelty campaign to tackle the issue.

Claire Wood, one of the Worcester and Mid-Worcestershire branch's volunteers, said: "Incidents like this take a terrible toll on the physical and emotional wellbeing of staff and volunteers.

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"Sadly it’s something that rescue centres like ours are seeing day in, day out, and we are working round the clock to care for an ever-increasing number of sick, abandoned and unwanted animals who are being left to fend for themselves.

“We despair at how this not only keeps on happening but how much worse it appears to be getting.”

Dermot Murphy, Chief Inspectorate Officer at the RSPCA, said: “The idea of putting your cat in a cat carrier and taking them to a secluded spot in the woods before walking away, or chucking your dog out of the car and driving off leaving them desperately running behind the vehicle, is absolutely unthinkable and heartbreaking to most pet owners - but sadly we are seeing animals callously abandoned like this every single day.

“We understand that sometimes the unexpected can happen - the pandemic and cost of living crisis proved that - but there is never an excuse to abandon an animal.

"There are always other options for anyone who has fallen on hard times and can no longer afford to keep their pet.”

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The Animal Kindness Index showed that 78 per cent of pet owners think the cost of living will impact their animals, almost seven out of 10 (68 per cent) expressing concern that the cost of care was increasing, and a fifth (19 per cent) worried about how they’ll afford to feed their pets.

This survey comes at a time when the charity is at its busiest period.

Dogs were the most abandoned pet with 14,462 reports of dumped dogs made to the RSPCA last year. Cats were the second most abandoned pet with 10,051 reports of cats being callously dumped in 2021.