Fife was Scotland’s hotspot for reports of animals in need during lockdown, new figures have revealed.
Data from the Scottish SPCA shows almost 10% of all jobs taken on by the animal welfare charity in the first six months of the year were in the region.
Rescue officers and inspectors responded to a call about injured, sick or stray animals every 90 seconds, with 3,226 of the 36,299 calls across Scotland coming from Fife.
There were 1,843 calls relating to animals in Dundee and Angus during the same period, making up 5% of all reports, while 1,292 related to Perth and Kinross.
Across Fife and Tayside, 224 animals were rehomed, while 21 were returned to their owner.
The charity said the coronavirus pandemic meant reports were down 8% on the same period last year but it was still under immense pressure as all nine of its rescue and rehoming centres had to close.
It instead launched an emergency foster scheme for more than 260 animals.
As restrictions eased, virtual rehoming was introduced to get animals into loving homes.
During the same period, the SSPCA’s national wildlife rescue centre in Clackmannanshire remained open and continued to take in injured, sick or orphaned wild animals, although the 3,377 admissions were down 47% on last year.
While the charity was unable to fulfil school visits during lockdown, it helped with home learning by providing free educational resources online, which were downloaded more than 6,000 times.
A further 1,000 printed learning packs were distributed to children struggling to access online tools.
SSPCA chief executive Kirsteen Campbell said: “Our whole team has worked so hard through this unprecedented crisis and the passion and dedication they have displayed all the way through has been truly inspirational.
“Even during lockdown we were still averaging a call about an animal in need every 90 seconds, which shows the scale of demand there was for our services.
“As Scotland’s animal champions, we have a duty to continue to do our job under any circumstances to make sure pets, wildlife, farm animals and people get the help they need.”
