More people abandoning pets in recent weeks, says SPCA

More people are abandoning their pets and leaving them at shelters, says the spokesperson of the Israeli SPCA organization.

Gadi Vitner tells Channel 12 that the organization is seeing a 35 percent increase in pet abandonment since the new government restrictions to stem the coronavirus pandemic were put in place.

People are also halting donations to the group, citing job loss or movement restrictions, according to the report.

Vitner says the organization has never experienced anything like this. “We’ve survived wars, and economic crises, but over the past two weeks, people are gripped by panic, they don’t know what will happen, they leave their dogs, they leave their cats. And they don’t come to adopt,” given the social distancing directives, he says.

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