“It’s quite a sad day when people have to make a choice of either feeding their animals or their children. For some people, sadly, it has got to that situation.”
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| Australians are beginning to give up their pets due to high cost of living |
Susan Talevski knows this well. Her Lost Dogs’ Home animal shelter in Melbourne, Australia looks after hundreds of domestic animals – and their numbers are growing by the day.
One of the shelter’s newest guests is four-year-old Charcoal, a 63kg Neapolitan mastiff. He was given up by his owners who said they could no longer afford a pet.
And they are not alone in their struggles.
The cost of living has soared around the world as the effects of the pandemic and the Ukraine war push up the price of food, fuel and other essentials.
It is not just the food that we eat that is now costing more – prices for pet food and other products for domestic animals have also jumped.
Feeding Charcoal costs as much as A$1,600 ($998; £886) a year, Ms Talevski estimates.
“We have 500 animals at our shelter. That’s many mouths to feed. We feel the pinch in terms of buying supplies, keeping up with pet food, and making sure all our animals are healthy,” she adds.BBC
