Demand soars for dog foodbank: 'Clients are feeding their dog instead of themselves'

Some pet owners are being forced to choose between feeding themselves or their animals, as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.

There has been an increasing number of dogs being surrendered to rescues - which are already at capacity - as owners find they can not afford food of vet bills.

Tyra Basilicata opened the Wellington Dog Food Bank just before Christmas and the demand has been overwhelming. She has given more than 700kgs of food to more than 200 dogs since 1 January.

"I started out taking individual orders from people, and then dropping food to their home," Basilicata said.

"It became pretty apparent, pretty quickly, that I was not going to be able to keep that up.

"I decided to go to a mobile service, which basically involves me taking all the food that I have, loading it into the back of the car, and driving to certain areas for people to come to me."

Basilicata said a lot of her clients worked full-time. "They're still struggling."

Her clients told her that they could not eat on days they had dog food, she said. "A lot of clients are feeding their dog instead of themselves."

Nicole Doriguzzi and Vicky Hayward, who are behind Ellie's Canine Rescue and Rehome, have had a huge number of people asking for help, and it has risen every year since they opened in 2019.

Doriguzzi and Hayward also said some had not been feeding themselves so their dog could eat.

They rescued and rehomed 302 dogs in 2022, 518 in 2023, and were expecting to save even more this year.

"People are finding that they are unable to afford food, or vet bills, or desexing," Doriguzzi said.

Helena Clark and Johanna Rush started Chance 4 Change in November, and have already taken in 54 dogs across the Wellington region since then.

One dog they rescued was being fed Weetbix and milk because its owner could not afford to buy dog food.

"Unfortunately with New Zealand's cost of living crisis, and also the fact that a lot of homeowners that own rental properties aren't always keen to have dogs in the properties, we're finding a lot of dogs being surrendered to rescues," Clark said.

"We're also, unfortunately, seeing them on places like Facebook being given away for free."

The government announced changes to tenancy laws yesterday that would see a two-week pet bond and obligations for tenants to pay for damage their animals cause in a bid to make it easier to find a rental as a dog owner.

But the changes require tenants to only have a pet or pets with the landlord's consent, and will not be implemented until the end of next year.

Clark and Rush said they were going to start an education programme in the next couple of months to reduce the number of unwanted, neglected and abused dogs.

"We are very big believers, if we don't educate from the bottom up - from our children - then we're never going to break the cycle of neglect and abuse in this country," Clark said.

"We are slowly putting together a group of certified therapy dogs that'll come into schools and teach children about things like dog safety as well as how to care for animals."

"And we're going to emphasise with that, the importance of vaccinating and desexing," Rush added.

"So that hopefully we can prevent the need for us to rescue more."