Puppies and pregnant dogs left by breeders overwhelming rescue centres

Thrown to the wolves: Scores of puppies and pregnant dogs abandoned by selfish ‘money-maker’ breeders are leaving rescue centres overwhelmed by hundreds of new arrivals

• The charity is overwhelmed by 300 arrivals, including popular lockdown breeds
• These included cockapoos, labradors, spaniels, chihuahuas and dachshunds

These three little puppies should have been destined for loving homes – but then the market for them collapsed.

They are among scores of young dogs abandoned by backyard breeders or owners, some of them dumped at the side of busy roads or left outside rescue centres.

It’s a crisis created by pure greed, according to veteran campaigner Sylvia Van Atta, 65, who runs the Many Tears charity, near Llanelli, Carmarthenshire.

She’s currently overwhelmed by 300 new arrivals, including all the favourite lockdown breeds – cockapoos, labradors, spaniels, chihuahuas and dachshunds. 

Scores of young dogs were abandoned by backyard breeders or owners, some of them dumped at the side of busy roads or left outside rescue centres

Those left at the centres included all the favourite lockdown breeds – cockapoos, labradors, spaniels, chihuahuas and dachshunds

Ms Van Atta said: ‘During Covid, breeding kennels were not monitored by councils, and everyone watched as the price of puppies rocketed and more and more were bred.

‘Backyard breeders bought dogs to make quick money, many with no idea about the experience and expense needed to socialise, feed and oversee the welfare of puppies they simply saw as ‘money-makers’. Some didn’t care, so long as they were making money.

‘We’ve been left to pick up the pieces, and we’re not alone. Many rescue centres are at breaking point. Adoptions are falling and their futures are in doubt.’

Ms Van Atta said whole litters of pups were being left to take their chances beside busy roads and that pregnant pure bred dogs were being brought to Many Tears. She added: ‘The situation is unprecedented.’

Last Friday, Many Tears scrambled to take in four 11-week-old dachshund puppies, their mother and an American XL Bully whose ears had been illegally cropped. 

Heartless puppy farmers simply abandoned them, dumping them at the side of busy roads or outside rescue centres

Ms Van Atta received a phone call close to midnight after authorities discovered the dogs dumped in a house in Swansea that had laid empty for months.

Earlier this year, the RSPCA sounded the alarm over a 73 per cent rise in the number of puppies being dumped after a boom in demand during lockdown. 

Some 3.2million households are thought to have bought pets when Covid restrictions were in force to combat social isolation or boost exercise.

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