Demand outstrips supply at pet food banks
Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home provided more than 50,000 meals for pets in October.
Demand for pet food from food banks in Scotland is outstripping supply, the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home has revealed.
Requests from pet owners have risen by a third since last year, meaning that at times the Home is struggling to source enough donations to split across the 88 food banks it works with.
Kirsten Gillon, community outreach lead at the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, said: “The cost-of-living crisis has really accentuated the fact that people are needing help to feed their pets. And it’s not always people who are on benefits who need us, it’s also people who are working and can’t access government support, so they are forced turn to our food banks.”
Despite inflation in the UK starting to fall, the cost of being a pet owner is still rising considerably. The latest inflation figures for October 2023 revealed an inflation rate for pet care of 10.3 per cent, more than double the overall inflation rate of 4.6 per cent.
The growth in the number of pet owners seeking help this year is part of a longer-term trend. In October 2020, the Home provided 500 meals to pets through food banks. In comparison, this October, 52,613 meals were supplied.
Ms Gillon added: “The need is just growing and growing, it’s not declining in any way. The need is far greater than anything I thought it would be. And trying to find enough donations to fill the requests is really difficult.
“We’ve tried to increase donations coming in and we try to split donations as fairly and equally as we can across locations. It’s not always possible as we are at the mercy of the generous donations of the public.”
The Home has launched a winter appeal to help fund its services.
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Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
