Cat rescues across Greater Manchester and surrounding areas are facing their own ‘pandemic’. Rescues across the region are struggling to look after the hundreds of stray, abandoned and rehomed cats and kittens, while facing abuse from desperate owners.
Volunteers believe that many people adopted cats during the lockdowns when family members were working from home, but since the end of the pandemic and rise in the cost of living, some have felt that they have no choice but to abandon them.
Liz Wingert runs Cheshire Cats Rescue and has seen a huge increase in the number of phone calls asking the rescue to take in cats. Not only strays and abandoned cats, but privately owned pets who families who can no longer afford.
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The charity, based in Sale and Altrincham, has more than 120 cats and kittens, in their shelter and with foster families, all of whom were abandoned. Explaining what rescues are facing daily, she said: “It’s absolutely horrific, we’re a very small rescue. We have 15 fosters actively working because of holidays and sickness and covid and things, and we currently have 124 cats or kittens in rescue with us."
Along with calls to collect abandoned cats, Liz says she is currently receiving between 20 to 30 calls a day from people wanting Cheshire Cats Rescue to rehome their privately adopted cats. However, due to the number of strays and a drop in adoptions, many rescues can't help with private pets anymore.
“We’re getting calls to building sites, empty garages, storage places, empty houses and we’re having to go pick up injured or sick cats and particularly mums with newborn babies from there.
“Rescues are being abused, we’re getting screamed at and shouted at. Some of the threats we get - ‘we’re going to put them to sleep and it’s your fault, ‘we’re just going to put them outside so you’ll have to take them’, it’s personal threats as well, ‘watch out, you’ll be sorry', yada yada yada.
“We take most of it with a pinch of salt, but this is what rescues are facing.”
Liz went on to add how the pandemic, and now the cost of living crisis has impacted cats, saying: “Rescues are drowning, there is no space, there’s no room, fundraising for most of us has died off. We’re not raising the funds that we used to because the cost of living has gone up and that’s had an impact on people’s expendable income and that’s had an impact on how much they can donate to charity.
“Cats are being abandoned. A couple of weeks ago I had mum and four babies, quite large babies, they were about five or six weeks old, they’d all been taped in a small box and left in the woods.
“It was one of the hottest days of the year and they’d been left to die. It’s emotional blackmail on rescues as well.
“The emotional toll, I think people forget that rescues are volunteers, we’re human. We don’t make a wage, we don’t get paid for this and we are seeing the worst in humanity at the minute.
“For the rescues, the pandemic is just beginning. It’s not even reached the peak I don’t think. I think that will come more in winter with injuries and illness with the cold weather. The pandemic in rescue is just beginning.”
Naomi Durose, charity trustee at Rescue Kitties in Ashton-under-Lyne, told the Manchester Evening News that prior to the pandemic, they had around 45 fosterers who would take in cats. Now, since the cost of living crisis began, they have less than 15.
“When the initial lockdown started, more people wanted to adopt animals, more people wanted to help, it was fabulous, it was brilliant," she said. "But since the lockdown has ended, people have started to go back to work and the cost of living has skyrocketed.
“As a rescue, we pay for all of the food, medications, vet bills, but what people now are realising is, it’s all of the hidden costs that you don’t think about: fuel that you need to spend to go to vet appointments, the electric that you use in the house when you’re looking after the cats.
“People are worrying then about how to pay for animals, so animals are staying in rescue longer, so we’re having to pay for them a lot longer.”
Naomi has noticed the price of a box of supermarket own brand food has jumped from around £2 to over £3. The cost of care has created a domino effect.
“A new issue that we’ve got, that we’ve never ever had before is the amount of people who have adopted from us that are returning cats," she said. "Any reputable rescue, if you adopt a cat from us you get rescue back up for life.
“So many are coming back to us now because they can’t afford to pay for them. People are literally having to choose between feeding their animals or feeding their children.
“Late last night we got a call from someone because her grandmother was struggling to take care of her cat, when we got to the house, it was actually two cats and eight kittens. An extra 10 in one day.”
Kittie Rescue currently has more than 110 cats, both with foster families and in shelter, and the rescue is at capacity and is not receiving much funding.
Andy Richards runs Happy Cats in Accrington, Lancashire, which is both a rescue and charity shop. Similar to Naomi, Andy has seen a decrease in funding, both through donations and people shopping in his charity shop.
He said: “It’s becoming harder to maintain a cats’ rescue because people are not donating like they were. That’s another knock on effect, as well as wanting to give the pets up and long waiting lists at rescues, people are not donating.
“They’re not giving the money like they used to. People were coming in our shop and saying ‘oh we can’t see anything we want, but here’s £20 for the cats’, but that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Andy also told the Manchester Evening News how the rising cost of living is causing more and more people to give their cats up, or simply abandon them.
“Obviously, you’ve got to consider the cost of everything now. Just as an example, a two kilogram bag of Whiskas biscuits, which is not an expensive brand, it’s like the bog standard, it was always like £3.50 and it’s £4.90 now.
“The cost of everything has absolutely rocketed and so that’s a big contributing factor in people not feeling they can look after their pets anymore. There’s so many people coming into the shop, phoning me, messaging me on Facebook, there’s a stray cat here, there’s an abandoned cat here, the people living here they just left and left the cat behind.
“We’re trying to cope with a massively increased workload, at a greatly inflated price but with far less income. It’s really, really hard.
“Once upon a time it was unheard of to move away and just leave the cat on the street. It used to be really shocking to hear that, but now it’s commonplace."
Ashlea Franks, co-founder at Independent Cat Rescue in Prestwich, which is also at its capacity, noticed an increase in calls from people threatening to abandon their cats from March this year and believes the problem is ‘completely out of hand’.
She said: “We’re dealing with so many feral colonies because people are leaving their cats unneutered, leaving them behind and moving out and it’s just kittens having kittens and creating all of this havoc between feral cats.
“We’ve got the issues of that and we get between 15 and 30 calls a day of people wanting to give up their unneutered cats and giving us empty threats about dumping them if they’re not taken, which we’re finding an increase in as well.
“Everything has jumped in price, vet bills as well, luckily we get a discount at our vets, which helps massively. I’ve noticed donations as well have cut down a bit, obviously because people are struggling, the price of cat food and cat litter, all of that has gone up so that’s had a major effect on the rescue.
“Vet bills have gone up to five, £6000 in the last month, it’s really hard at the moment.”
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