CARING THROUGH COVID

CARING THROUGH COVID-19

In spite of a global pandemic, we’ve continued to do our duty by animals. Through these unprecedented times, we have been on the frontline of animal welfare work.

Animals make us happy. Whether it’s the dog who loyally follows us around, the cat who rests on our lap or even the wild animals who treat our gardens as their own, they put a smile on our faces. This year, as Scotland and the rest of the world has been turned upside down by coronavirus, the roles of animals in our lives has never been more important.

And whilst many people got to spend more quality time with their pets and nature and wildlife got a chance to breathe from the onslaught of threats it faces, our inspectors, animal rescue officers, animal care teams and vets were still needed.

Our Chief Executive Kirsteen Campbell said “The true economic impact of coronavirus still has some way to run, and we believe our role in connecting people with animals, protecting animals from harm and providing vital support to pet owners will be more vital than ever.

“At the beginning of lockdown, we had to adapt to a situation none of us has ever experienced before. As Scotland’s animal welfare charity, we had a duty to fulfil and we have managed to do that all year long, protecting our staff, the people we support and rehome to and, of course, animals.”

ON THE FRONT LINE

The severe restrictions meant we were unable to rehome from mid-March until the end of May. We had hundreds of animals who were ready to be rehomed, and we wanted to get them in to one as quickly as possible. So, for the first time ever, we launched an emergency fostering scheme which allowed us to get over 260 animals out of our centres on a temporary basis. Over 70 were permanently adopted by their fosterers.

Whilst we could not rehome, we worked on putting in place an online rehoming system which would allow people to apply to adopt safely whilst adhering to Government guidelines. Since it launched in May, we have been able to rehome faster than we were in 2019.

As well as benefitting the individual animals, the fostering scheme freed up space in anticipation of any

Over 260 Animals fostered 70 permanently rehomed

rise in abandonments due to the economic impact of the pandemic. Thankfully, this has not materialised in Scotland yet.

However, our inspectors and animal rescue officers are still in high demand. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve responded to an average of over 140 reports of animals in need every single day. Our animal helpline fielded almost 120,000 calls in the first half of the year, too. As well as taking reports of animals in need, they provided support to people concerned about being able to care for their animals. Our fundraising team took the time to call hundreds of our isolated and vulnerable supporters to make they are coping well. In spite of the pandemic, our frontline teams have been just as busy over the summer as they are in a typical year.

We expect animal welfare issues to come up off the back of the pandemic, such as a rise in abandonments, separation anxiety for pets bought in lockdown and issues with socialisation due to restrictions. We stand ready to help animals - and pet owners - who need us.

FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE LIVINGROOM

Sadly, our free education programme has had to be scaled back as we are unable to visit schools. Up until mid-March, we had already visited almost 50,000 school children and the bookings we had to cancel meant missing out on the chance to visit as many as 40,000 more.

Not to rest on our laurels, our Education team quickly developed a suite of animal welfare learning resources which were made available for free on our website. These education packs, designed to help parents and carers who were home-schooling whilst providing some important knowledge on animals for kids, were used by some teachers too. Over 6,000 of the packs were downloaded before the end of the 2019/20 academic year.

Of course, not everyone can access online resources and that’s why we teamed up with Barnardo’s, Police Scotland and others to get 1,000 printed resource packs delivered to families across edinburgh. The packs, which went to families across Edinburgh and the Lothians, were warmly received and we are now looking at how we can do more of this in future, pandemic or not. We have worked as hard as we possibly can to be there for people and animals who need us all year. Kirsteen says: “We play a vital role at the heart of every community in Scotland and we are going nowhere. Whatever challenges are thrown our way, our inspirational frontline workers will do everything they can to help.

“And the work we have been able to do this year has only been possible because our members have stood by us through these turbulent times. This support is critical and, from the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every person who believes in our cause.”

Online education packs downloaded

1k printed for those without online access

FANTASTIC FOSTERERS

Our emergency foster programme helped get hundreds of animals in to loving homes whilst we were unable to let people adopt from our rescue centres. Here, fosterer Grace talks about what it was like to foster Border collie pup Beni.

“I run a boarding kennels and already had 12 other dogs before fostering Beni, so you could say I have a house-full! The rest of the gang were so welcoming of Beni and he settled in brilliantly. So well, in fact, that we couldn’t possibly imagine life without him so we rehomed him permanently. “He has come on leaps and bounds since we first welcomed him in to our home. At the Scottish SPCA centre, Beni had a head tilt and the vets were struggling to determine the cause. In the months he’s spent at our home, his neck has strengthened to the point where at his most recent check-up the vet couldn’t tell he’d even had a head tilt!

“I live on a working farm and Beni instinctively wanted to run and herd my two lambs. He is now a few months old and he is a great assistant in caring for the lambs.”