There has been a big rise in the number of animals abandoned in Wiltshire, the RSPCA has revealed.

There were 314 abandoned animals reported to the RSPCA in 2021 but so far, there has already been 495 abandonment reports made in the county so far this year (2022).

The charity has stressed that it gets four reports of abandoned animals every hour.

As part of the charity’s Cancel Out Cruelty campaign, the RSPCA has revealed it received more than 100 reports of animals being abandoned every single day throughout 2021 and sadly these figures are on the rise this year.

A total of 38,087 abandonment reports were made to the charity’s cruelty line last year - an average of over 3,000 reports a month.

Dermot Murphy, Chief Inspectorate Officer at the RSPCA, said: “The idea of putting your cat in a cat carrier and taking them to a secluded spot in the woods before walking away, or chucking your dog out of the car and driving off leaving them desperately running behind the vehicle, is absolutely unthinkable and heartbreaking to most pet owners - but sadly we are seeing animals callously abandoned like this every single day.”