Fostering up 170 per cent, Scottish SPCA reports
The charity is focusing on growing fostering to reduce long stays in its centres.
The Scottish SPCA has reported a dramatic rise in animal fostering in 2025, with an increase of 170 per cent in the first quarter.
Between January and March, the charity found temporary homes for 178 animals, compared to just 66 during the same period in 2024. It has also seen a 6.9 per cent increase in adoptions and a 5.5 per cent drop in arrivals.
The charity believes that this increase is the result of a focused effort to reduce the pressure on their rescue centres. It has guided its campaigning on preventative and community-based work, aiming for more sustainable approaches to rescue, rehabilitation and adoption.
The Scottish SPCA’s 2025 strategy sees the charity focus on growing animal fostering, which reduces long stays at its centres. It also helps the animals to recover and rehabilitate in a supportive environment.
The charity explains that many animals do not cope well within a centre environment and some are not well socialised with people and animals.
One such foster family is Matt and Anna Wintle, a couple living in Ayrshire which first signed up as fosterers in 2022.
Since then, they have fostered 12 cats and 43 kittens. They even transformed a corner of their home into a ‘Caternity Ward’.
Their first foster was a ten-week-old kitten called Jim Hopper, which they then went on to adopt.
After Jim Hopper, the couple took on the challenge of fostering a pregnant cat. Matt and Anna say this led them to a ‘crash course’ in looking after kittens and ‘a houseful of tiny chaos’.
The couple works full-time, but says the flexibility of remote working and the support from Scottish SPCA made fostering a possibility for them.
Matt said: “It’s hard to explain how satisfying it is – you have to experience it.
“It’s just wonderful to know we played a small part in giving them a helping hand from a rough start into a loving forever home.”
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