RSPCA to start ‘virtual’ pet rehoming this week

The RSPCA is to restart “electronically” homing and fostering animals in England this week in response to a massive rise in interest from people in COVID-19 lockdown.

A statement said: “In recent weeks, there have been more than a million visits to the RSPCA rehoming pages online – a rise of almost 30% – and a staggering 600% increase in interest in fostering, with more than 115,000 visits to our fostering page.”

Defra-approved

The RSPCA has some 4,800 animals in its care, but said social distancing rules mean adoptions and fostering of animals can only be done online.

In line with Defra-approved guidance for England, animal centres will remain closed to the public and the new, temporary RSPCA rehoming and fostering process will involve the following:

• Finding an animal on the RSPCA’s Find A Pet web page, completing a perfect match form and emailing it to the rehoming centre.
• All adopters or fosterers must live within about an hour’s drive of the centre where the animal is being cared for.
• All discussions will take place via telephone or video call.
• Adopters and fosterers will get to “virtually meet” their potential pet, with videos sent to show them their behaviour and give them a deeper understanding of their pet’s personality.
• Home visits will be done virtually, through photos or a video walk-through of the home.
• All pets will be transported to their new homes and handovers will observe social distancing.
• All ongoing support will be done virtually.

The RSPCA will start rehoming cats, dogs and small pets this week, and is looking into whether it is able to rehome horses in the near future.