A Welsh rescue for stray and abandoned dogs has reached "crisis point" with the sheer volume of dogs in their care.
Hope rescue, based in Llanharan, is currently completely full with more than 154 dogs, more than they have ever had in their 16 years. All of their available foster homes are also full.
As well as dealing with an overwhelming number of dogs with health or behavioural issues, they are also seeing a growing number of owners handing in their own pets as "fake strays", meaning they have to turn others away.
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As a result, since January, the centre has had 7,200 applications from people looking for pets but re-homed just 211 dogs.
Charity founder Vanessa Waddon said: "We knew this was coming, it's the fallout from the pandemic, the huge spike in the number of dogs purchased during lockdown. The more dogs that are purchased and bred means the likelihood of more dogs coming into us."
Many of the dogs coming into Hope Rescue are not straightforward dogs, she added, meaning they need extra resources to support them before they are suitable for re-homing.
This includes those coming in with behavioural or health problems, or sometimes both, which means they stay at the centre for longer. Because of this, many rescues are unable to take new dogs in as they look after the more challenging pets.
Ultimately, it means rescue centres like Hope Rescue are regularly having to turn dogs away unless they have a suitable foster home available.
Vanessa said: "It's heart-breaking that dogs are being put to sleep unnecessarily at the vets, that we would of course usually take in but we just can't because of the sheer amount of dogs we already have in our care.
"It's heart-breaking for us, the owners and the vets."
Vanessa says the current situation is the result of the perfect storm that was created during lockdown, with low welfare breeders or a change in circumstance after purchasing a dog.
This is the reality that many rescues will be facing for a long time to come, she warned.
"We work very closely with other rescues but even they are at capacity and are unable to take any extra in."
Hope Rescue take in a quarter of all strays in Wales and look after six local authorities - Merthyr Tydfil, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Bridgend and the western half of the Vale of Glamorgan.
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"It's a huge commitment", said Vanessa.
"We have over 7,200 applications for dogs currently, and it's not that we don't have the dogs, it's that people are looking for straightforward family dogs and we just don't have those types of dogs at the moment."
The biggest issue dog rescue centres are facing is fake strays. This is where an owner pretends they have found a stray in order to skip the wait times for rescue.
Vanessa said: "Fake strays are jumping over people who are waiting and have asked for our help responsibly. There's dogs at the vets being put to sleep that we might have been able to help.
"People call for us to take their dog and when we say that we can't as we're full, people often say well we'll just take him to a police station and pretend he's a stray."
The issue with fake strays is that the rescue centre has no information on the dog's background and whether they have any health or behavioural issues.
This makes them so much harder to re-home as they have to be assessed properly before they can be put up for adoption, which means they are in the centre for much longer than necessary.
As a result, the centre has made the difficult decision to suspend new applications for dogs until November.
Explaining the impossible situation, Hope Rescue took to their Instagram page to explain: "Like many other rescues, we have reached crisis point.
"With 154 dogs in our care across our rescue centre and foster homes, for the foreseeable future we can only accept those dogs that can easily move into a foster home.
"The demographic of dogs coming in post-pandemic has changed. Many of the dogs we have in either have health or behavioural issues, or often both.
"These are not the type of dogs that can be quickly re-homed, and they need the time and space for us to support them and set them up for success. Not being able to help these dogs will break our hearts as these are the very dogs that need our skills and experience."
They added: "We have a backlog of adoption applications to get through and have taken the decision to suspend applications until November.
"Since January we have had 7,200 applications and re-homed 211 dogs. We're inundated with applications and follow up messages and calls and we are really struggling.
"We need to prioritise those waiting patiently to match them up. Most of these understandably want family dogs, which we just don't have at the moment.
"This is our world for the foreseeable future and it's a huge concern. If you could help us out with a donation we would be so grateful."
You can make a donation to Hope Rescue here.
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