The RSPCA, which is currently caring for more than 4,800 animals, is to restart rehoming and fostering animals in its care in England from this week.
Frontline teams from the charity have continued to rescue animals throughout the covid-19 crisis but they have been unable to find them new homes, meaning that thousands have remained in its care.
Now that Defra has approved guidelines, put together by the Canine and Feline Sector Group, to allow animal welfare charities in England to rehome safely during the pandemic, the RSPCA will start finding homes for the animals in its care using a new safe process.
In recent weeks there have been more than a million visits to the RSPCA rehoming pages online – a rise of nearly 30% with a staggering 600% increase in interest in fostering, with more than 115,000 visits to the charity’s fostering page
PERFECT MATCH
In line with Defra-approved guidance for England, animal centres will remain closed to the public and the new, temporary RSPCA rehoming and fostering process will involve:
* Finding an animal on the RSPCA’s Find A Pet web page, completing a Perfect Match form and emailing it to the rehoming centre
* All adopters or fosterers must live within about an hour’s drive of the centre where the animal is being cared for
* All discussions will take place via phone or video call
* Adopters and fosterers will get to ‘virtually meet’ their potential pet with videos sent to show them their behaviour
* Home visits will be done ‘virtually’, through photos or video walk-through the home
* All pets will be transported to their new homes and handovers will observe social distancing
