In lockdown, 3.2 million households in the UK bought a pet. But now, pet owners are beginning to struggle with the cost of their furry friend’s food as the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis has caused a steep price hike, and it is still set to go up.
The war in Ukraine caused supply issues, which led to such a large increase in price that in 2022, the UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, refused to stock six brands of pet food, including: Dreamies, Whiskas and Pedigree. The dispute between brand Mars Petcare and Tesco took several months to settle, but even now shelves are still often bare.
Pets4Homes, an online pet marketplace, said in a public statement that it had seen a significant increase in the amount of animals being sold on their site in the last twelve months under financial reasoning, and the RSPCA carried out a study which supported this.
Taken by Charley Young
Student Mia Trevorrow, 20, from Maghull, Liverpool, said: “We have noticed a rise in dry food. The rise was only really about 50p to a pound, and this just effects us because obviously the cost of living is going up and it’s just frustrating… if this does continue to go up we won’t be able to buy his [dog] food in bulk and start rationing how much money we spend and how much dog food we actually buy.”
Some pet owners have started to feed their pets leftovers from their own meals, finding this more cost effective and easier to do. Sheila Doyle, 64, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk, said: “feeding the dog leftovers are only what we used to do in the sixties and seventies.”
Pet owners are cautioned to be vigilant and ‘smart’ when giving their pet leftovers, as the majority of so-called ‘human food’ contains more fats and sugars than animal stomachs can manage and digest safely.
The RSPCA and DogsTrust, both animal charities, have began an initiative to distribute rationed amounts of pet food to animal owners to support them. This comes after DogsTrust found that approximately 1000 people were making the call to give up their dog per week.
Mersey Focus 