sad fact, pet abandonment is on the rise in the Alpes-Maritimes. In 2021, the Cannet SPA refuge has for example collected 258 animals, an increase of 19% compared to 2020.
In Grasse, the refuge of the association Au Service des Animaux (ASA) also recorded an increase, particularly an increase in animals collected directly from the street. In 2021, the shelter collected around fifty cats and twenty dogs.
An increase linked to confinements?
Difficult to explain this increase in dropouts, but it could be linked to the confinements: “We had a few abandonments by people admitting that they had taken a dog during confinement, and that with the recovery and return to work it became unmanageable,“explains Cécilia Fruleux, director of the ASA 06 shelter.
– Theophile Vareille
“The problem is that people almost always have a good excuse,” regrets Julie Boyon, employee at the cat shelter of the Society for the Defense of Animals (SDA) in Nice. “They do not always tell the truth, often tell us that it is a cat found in the street that they bring to us when it is clearly theirs.“
At the SDA, Julie Boyon also recorded a strong demand for cat adoptions during the confinements, “there were many more calls“, but she cut it short: “We said no, we stopped adoptions during confinement, we realized that like during the holidays people wanted a ‘caprice chat’, on a whim and without really thinking about it.“
“_Adopting an animal is a commitment_, she explains, it’s time, money, and it’s for the whole life of the animal, not just for the first three months when it’s a very cute kitten.“