Overview
- The LID’s 2025 figures, released this week, show a slight drop in handled reports for dogs and cats but a clear rise in severity, with more animals found underfed, living in filth, or needing urgent treatment.
- Reports from veterinary practices to the LID tripled in three years, climbing from 100 in 2023 to 321 in 2025 as clinicians flag clients who skip or refuse essential care.
- Violations of the breeding ban on harmful traits increased from 28 in 2024 to 60 in 2025, and inspectors noted a sharp rise in alerts about pasture animals such as goats, sheep, donkeys, deer, and alpacas that are visible to the public.
- Animal ambulances and clinics report more pets being abandoned and more owners asking to pay in installments as medication, procedures, and even pet food grow costlier, with serious cases routed via the 144 hotline to the animal police.
- Inspectors trace the trend to the lockdown pet boom and post‑crisis inflation that strains low‑income owners, and the LID says it will deepen work with enforcement partners, veterinarians, and local authorities to prevent repeat neglect.