We are dubbed a nation of animals lovers. There are over 10.2M pet dogs within the UK and an estimated 14M pet cats and they are only the ones that are registered. There are an estimated 2.7M pets entering kennels every year with a 27% rise on these figures in the last year alone. Out of these figures the most common reason given is eviction at a staggering 72%. But why is eviction a leading cause? Well that’s  because when someone is evicted, regardless of the reasons, they are unable to obtain housing as less than 3% of all private rented accommodation in the UK allow pets. Given that there are 6-month waiting lists for emergency council housing, what options do pet owners have? It’s a sad state of show when even the government refuses to allow pets into hostels and makes no provision whatsoever for temporary animal housing. Please note, that this ruling even includes service, assistance and support dogs! The housing demand far outweighs availability and councils clearly have to make provisions to provide more affordable housing, however in the meantime, our beloved pets are being PTS. 

The demand for housing has meant that house prices have soared and many private landlords are selling up - exacerbating rental availability. Given the sharp price increase, many tenants cannot afford to purchase the property and are left with eviction notices. In addition, the backlash of covid has left many tenants in severe financial difficulty and unable to pay their rent which has also seen a sharp rise in evictions. The kennels are at breaking point and even healthy pets are being euthanised because they have nowhere to place them. 

So how can we change this? Other than the council building more houses, we can change the system so that private tenants are required to accept pets and cannot ‘vet’ tenants based on animals. This will not solve the problem but it will stem the amount of animals finding themselves in shelters after living with their owner all of their lives. What’s even worse is that a lot of these pets are elderly and have never known any other home and will likely die in that shelter. 

The law on housing needs to change. We All need to stand up to make a change. Tenants should be able to have insurance in place to protect them from tenants with pets - this should be standard practice. The government should change the law to prevent tenants being discriminated against from owning a pet. The government should accept pets into hostels when someone is evicted to prevent them from the heartache of not only losing their home, but their best friend. Many people end up homeless because of mental health - we focus upon changing the stigma yet when someone is in need and likely at their lowest, we then take away their pet? How can this be conducive to mental health awareness? 

This is a cause that means a lot to me. I have rescued hundreds of dogs in my time and the stories from individuals are unfortunately, so very similar. 

It costs nothing to sign a petition. Please let’s unite to make a change for the better. Thank you